Languages

Available In

Terminology

Biological sex: the biological classification of
bodies as male or female based on factors including external sex organs,
internal sexual and reproductive organs, hormones, or chromosomes.

Bisexual: a person who is attracted both to women and
men.

Gay: a synonym for homosexual in English and some
other languages, sometimes used to describe only males who are attracted
primarily to other males.

Gender: the social and cultural codes (as opposed to
biological sex) used to distinguish between what a society considers “masculine”
or “feminine” conduct.

Gender Identity: a person’s internal, deeply felt
sense of being female or male, or something other than female or male.

Gender-based violence: violence directed against a
person on the basis of gender or perceived sexual orientation. Gender-based
violence can include sexual violence, domestic violence, psychological abuse,
sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, harmful traditional practices, and
discriminatory practices based on gender. The term originally described
violence against women but is now taken to include violence targeted at both
women and men because of how they experience and express their genders and
sexualities.

Hamjensbaz: a derogatory but commonly used
Persian term for homosexuals.

Heterosexual: a person attracted primarily to people
of the opposite sex.

Homosexual: a person attracted primarily to people of
the same sex.

Intersex: a person who is born with a reproductive or
sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical definitions of female or male.

Lesbian: a female attracted primarily to other
females.

LGBT: lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; an
inclusive term for groups and identities sometimes associated together as “sexual
minorities.” In this report the term LGBT is generally used to refer to
individuals who self-identify as either lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

MSM: men (or males) who have sex with men. Men who
have sex with men may or may not identify as gay or bisexual.

Sexual minorities: an all-inclusive term that
includes all persons with non-conforming sexualities and gender identities,
such as LGBT, men who have sex with men (and may not self-identify as LGBT) and
women who have sex with women.

Sexual orientation: the way in which a person’s
sexual and emotional desires are directed. The term categorizes according to
the sex of the object of desire—that is, it describes whether a person is
attracted primarily toward people of the same or opposite sex or to both.

Transgender: one whose inner gender identity or
outward gender expression differs from the physical characteristics of their
body at birth. Female-to-male (FTM) transgender people (or transmen) were born
with a female body but have a predominantly male gender identity;
male-to-female (MTF) transgender people (or transwomen) were born with a male
body but have a predominantly female gender identity.

Transsexual: a person who has undergone or is in the
process of undergoing hormone therapies and the complex of cosmetic and
reconstructive procedures usually known as sex reassignment surgery (SRS) so
that their physical sex corresponds to their internal gender identity.

WSW: women (or females) who have sex with women.
Women who have sex with women may or may not identify as lesbian or bisexual.

Summary

In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like you do in your
country. This does not exist in our country.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s now infamous denial in
September 2007 that
homosexuality exists in his country rings as hollow today as it did when the
Iranian president made the claim before an audience at New York’s
Columbia University more than three years ago.

Iranian authorities continue to process hundreds
of applications from men seeking exemption from compulsory military service on
the grounds that they are gay or transgender. Several prominent psychiatrists,
psychologists, and sexologists, operating with the tacit approval of the state,
have counseled hundreds of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Iranians
to diagnose and “treat” their sexual “deviancy.” Moreover,
Iran has become renowned throughout the world for its relatively large number
of sex reassignment surgeries—at least some of which have been performed
on Iranians who likely self-identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual but who felt
compelled to undergo the procedure to erase the “stain” of
homosexuality and become “legal” under Iranian law.[1]

Ahmadinejad’s position
that Iran is free of homosexuals is consistent with the Iranian government’s
denial of, and intolerance towards, its sexual minorities. The environment
in Iran today is such that sexual minorities, who are often the victims of
abuse and violence, are instead treated as culprits; the state appears to
officially sanction harassment and abuse of LGBT persons by private actors and
even police; and LGBT persons are often seen as diseased, criminals, or corrupt
agents of Western culture.

Despite official pronouncements, however, it is believed
that thousands of Iranians self-identify as members of Iran’s LGBT
community, while many others engage in consensual same-sex acts prohibited
under Iranian law. There are, of course, no official statistics regarding the
size of Iran’s LGBT population, but their existence is acknowledged in
many of Iran’s larger urban areas such as Tehran, Esfahan, and Shiraz. In
the capital Tehran, for example, there are public areas known to be hangouts
for Iranian LGBT. Some of these areas, such as cafes and restaurants, are
associated with more well-to-do and middle class LGBT persons, while others,
including several well-known parks, are frequented by LGBT persons who have
often been rejected by their families and are living on the fringes of
society—particularly gay men and transwomen who resort to prostitution in
order to make a living.

This
report—based on interviews with more than 125 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender Iranians inside and outside Iran over the past five
years—documents discrimination and violence against Iran’s lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens, and others whose sexual practices and
gender expression do not conform to socio-religious norms.Human
Rights Watch analyzed these abuses within the context of systematic human
rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian government against its citizens
generally, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, invasions of privacy,
mistreatment and torture of detainees, and the lack of due process and fair
trial standards.

Iran’s security forces, including police and forces of
the hard-line paramilitary basij, rely upon discriminatory laws to
harass, arrest, and detain individuals whom they suspect of being gay. The
incidents often occur in parks and cafes, but Human Rights Watch also
documented cases in which security forces raided homes and monitored internet
sites for the purpose of detaining people they suspected of engaging in
non-conforming sexual conduct or gender expression.
The report also documents instances in which police and basij allegedly
ill-treated and in some cases tortured actual or suspected LGBT people, both in
public spaces and in detention facilities. Several individuals interviewed made
allegations that members of the security forces had sexually assaulted or raped
them.

Abuses resulting from the
application of Iranian law are also discussed. For example, people charged with
sexual crimes often endure summary trials that do not adhere to principles of
fairness. Judges overseeing sodomy cases often ignore strict evidentiary
guidelines within Iran’s penal code and use questionable investigative
methods and evidence that should be inadmissible to decide guilt or innocence.
Convictions frequently rely on confessions obtained through torture and extreme
psychological pressure, and courts have convicted defendants of sodomy charges
based solely on “knowledge of the judge” despite the existence of exculpatory
evidence and a lack of inculpatory evidence. Finally, the report considers the
plight of LGBT refugees who flee Iran for other countries (Turkey in
particular), as well as the dangers faced by Iranians working on issues concerning
the rights of sexual minorities.

Iranian law reflects the state’s hostile attitude
towards sexual minorities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
people. Iran’s penal code criminalizes all sexual relations engaged in
outside of traditional marriage and specifically bans same-sex conduct
regardless of whether it is consensual in nature. The very real threat of
prosecution and the serious punishment that awaits those convicted of same-sex
crimes constitute discrimination against members of Iran’s LGBT minority
whose consensual sexual practices are criminalized under any and all
circumstances. For example, Iranian law prohibits sodomy, defined to include
both consensual and coerced sexual intercourse between two men. The punishment
for same-sex intercourse between two men (lavat) is death and for sexual
relations between two women (mosaheqeh) is 100 lashes for the first
three offenses and the death penalty for the fourth. Evidence indicates that
the punishment has been enforced—the threat of execution is real for Iran’s
vulnerable LGBT community.

Legal provisions that criminalize and impose capital
punishment for consensual homosexual conduct run afoul of Iran’s
obligations under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)—ratified
by Iran in 1975—which prohibits death sentences except for “the
most serious crimes.”[2]
In addition, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) prohibits Iran
from sentencing individuals to death for sodomy (or any other crime) allegedly committed
while under the age of 18.[3]
The Human Rights Committee, which interprets the ICCPR, has called on all state
parties to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality or same-sex conduct. The Iranian
government is legally obligated under international human rights treaty law and
customary law, and bound by its own treaty commitments and those of previous
Iranian governments.[4]
The ICCPR’s protections place a mandate for action upon Iranian
authorities, including officials who bear responsibility for maintaining
security and enforcing the law in Iran.

Human Rights Watch calls
on the Iranian government to abolish all laws and other legislation under the
Islamic Penal Code that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, especially
those that impose the death penalty, and to cease the harassment, arrest,
detention, prosecution, and conviction of LGBT persons or persons who engage in
consensual same-sex conduct. Human Rights Watch also calls on authorities to
prohibit the public harassment, abuse, or arrest of sexual minorities,
individuals thought to be members of the LGBT community, or others (such as “effeminate
men”) by security forces, including Iran’s basij units, and
to investigate and prosecute members of the security forces who engage in such
actions. Any use of testimony or confessions secured, or which appear to have
been secured, under torture or threat of torture or other ill-treatment by
security forces should be prohibited.

Human Rights Watch also calls on other states and the Office
of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to implement policies and recommendations
to safeguard the rights of Iran’s vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum
seekers.

Recommendations

To the Government of Iran

Abolish all laws and other legislation under the Islamic Penal Code
that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, including, but not limited to:

Articles 110-11, which criminalize sodomy (lavat)and
prescribe the punishment for such acts as “death so long as both the
active and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted of free
will”;

Articles 121-22, which criminalize non-penetrative “foreplay”
(tafkhiz) between men, and prescribe lashes as punishment (and death
upon the fourth conviction);

Articles 123-24, which criminalize “lustful kissing”
between men and lying “naked under the same cover without any necessity”
and prescribe lashes as punishment;

Articles 129-31, which criminalize mosaheqeh, or
consensual sexual relations between women and prescribe lashes as punishment
(and death upon the fourth conviction);

Abolish or amend article 120 of the Iranian Penal Code allowing
convictions, including those relating to same-sex conduct, based solely on the
knowledge of the Shari’a judge as “derived through customary
methods,” which enables judges to rely on tenuous circumstantial evidence
to determine whether a crime has occurred;

Amend the Islamic Penal Code to include a single, gender-neutral
criminal provision on rape, including criminalization of marital rape;

Cease the harassment, arrest, detention, prosecution, and
conviction of sexual minorities based on offenses against public morals or
chastity, including violating religious sanctities in public (Article 638),
organization of (or participation in) an immoral or corrupt gathering (Article
639(a)), and encouraging others to engage in corrupt and obscene acts (Article
639(b));

Cease harassment, arrest, detention, prosecution and conviction
of sexual minorities based on provisions of the Islamic Penal Code, Press Law,
and Cybercrimes Law that prohibit the production, use, and dissemination of
material that is considered “immoral,” including LGBT websites,
literature, and other paraphernalia;

Immediately rescind any and all convictions and sentences related
to punishment of individuals who have engaged in consensual same-sex conduct or
relations, and immediately release any and all inmates who are currently
serving prison sentences for such convictions;

Immediately rescind all unlawful death sentences related to
individuals alleged to have committed the crime of sodomy when they were under
the age of 18, regardless of whether the act was consensual or forced;

Modify military regulations that prohibit gay and transgender
Iranians from serving in the armed forces because they are considered moral and
sexual deviants with “behavioral disorders”;

Cease the use and
administering of all humiliating physical and psychological tests by private
and government health care professionals designed to establish that an
individual applicant is gay or transgender for the purposes of securing a
military exemption;

Prohibit the public harassment, abuse, or arrest of sexual
minorities, individuals thought to be members of the LGBT community, or others
(such as “effeminate men”) by security forces, including Iran’s
basij units, and investigate and prosecute members of the security
forces who engage in such actions;

Protect and respect the privacy of all Iranians and cease all
targeting or entrapment, including internet entrapment and home raids by
security forces against Iran’s sexual minorities;

Prohibit harassment, abuse, ill-treatment, torture, and sexual
assault of sexual minorities or individuals believed to be members of Iran’s
sexual minorities by security forces during detention, and investigate and
prosecute members of the security forces who engage in such actions;

Prohibit the use of testimony or confessions secured, or which
appear to have been secured, under torture or threat of torture or other
ill-treatment in all prosecutions, including those related to same-sex conduct;

Take all necessary legislative, administrative, and other
measures to respect and legally recognize each person’s self-defined
gender identity, and to ensure that procedures exist whereby all state-issued
identity papers that indicate a person’s gender/sex reflect the person’s
self-defined gender identity;

Ensure that changes to identity documents will be recognized in
all contexts where the identification or disaggregation of persons by gender is
required by law or policy;

Ensure that private employers do not discriminate against persons
on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and pass specific
laws to protect transgender and transsexual Iranians who are already legally
recognized by the Iranian government from such discrimination;

Refrain from encouraging or persuading sexual minorities,
especially lesbian, gay, and bisexual Iranians, to undergo sex reassignment
surgery in order to become “legal” under the law;

Provide adequate access to physical and psychological services to
transgender or transsexual Iranians, including access to hormone therapy for individuals
who have undergone sex reassignment surgery;

To the
Government of Turkey and Other Refugee-Receiving States in the Region

Ensure that no Iranian refugees and asylum seekers are subject to
refoulement, either at the border (by refusing to grant entry) or after
entering the host country and that all have access to asylum procedures;

Ensure that all law enforcement and other government officials treat
all Iranian refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants with dignity and respect for
their human rights, without exceptions, including prohibiting all
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity;

Prohibit and prosecute acts of violence against LGBT asylum
seekers, refugees, and migrants;

Allow all refugees and asylum seekers freedom of movement, and do
not consign LGBT asylum seekers and refugees to “satellite cities,”
but rather allow them to reside in larger urban centers where they are less
likely to be targeted based on their sexual orientation or gender identity;

Allow all refugees and asylum seekers, including LGBT persons, to
secure work permits, and grant fee and documentation waivers to applicants when
necessary;

Provide all refugees and asylum seekers, including LGBT persons,
access to health services and medication on at least the same basis as other
non-citizens in the country;

Allow all refugees and asylum seekers, including LGBT persons, to
apply for exemptions for residency fees, and inform them of their right to
apply for an exemption of residence fees in accordance with Turkey’s Article
88 of the Law on the Collection of Fees (No. 492);

Train police officers who conduct “temporary asylum”
interviews in the legal standards that govern the need to protect members of
particular social groups, in interviewing techniques used to identify potential
sexual orientation and gender identity claims, and in methods to elicit
relevant testimony in a non-threatening manner;

To the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees

Closely monitor and report on attacks and abuses based on sexual
orientation and gender expression and identity in Iran, and provide guidance to
governments of host countries on the asylum claims of Iranian asylum seekers
who fear persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity;

Intervene actively to protect LGBT asylum seekers and refugees
from abuse in countries of first asylum within the region, and to prevent any
threatened refoulement;

Facilitate rapid resettlement
of those refugees identified as urgently needing to be moved outside the region
in cooperation with countries of first asylum and resettlement countries;

Accommodate any LGBT asylum seeker’s preference for a male
or female interviewing officer and interpreter;

Train interpreters on best practices for working with LGBT asylum
seekers, including issues of confidentiality, impartiality, and respect, and
ensure that they use appropriate terminology when conducting interviews with
LGBT asylum seekers;

Develop and apply training materials based on UNHCR’s
Guidance Note on Refugee Claims Related to Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity and the 2002 UNHCR Guidelines on Gender-Related Persecution;

Refer recognized LGBT refugees for resettlement together with their
partners.

To Other Concerned Governments, including EU Member
States, Canada, Australia, and the United States

Insist that all states in the region treat LGBT Iranians fleeing
the country in full accordance with international legal standards for the treatment
of refugees;

Closely monitor and report on attacks and abuses based on sexual
orientation and gender expression and identity in Iran;

Intervene to protect LGBT asylum seekers and refugees from abuse
in countries of first asylum within the region;

Recognize that integration into the country of asylum or return
to the home country are often not a possibility for LGBT refugees and asylum
seekers, and insist that asylum or refugee-hosting countries prohibit refoulement
(actual or threatened) of LGBT refugees or asylum seekers to Iran based on the
notion that there is no systematic persecution of sexual minorities in Iran, or
that LGBT persons can live comfortably in Iran as long as they conceal their
sexual orientation or identity;

Be receptive to the need for rapid resettlement processing of
refugees, including LGBT persons, with urgent needs to leave the region.

Methodology

The Iranian government does not allow nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) such as Human Rights Watch to enter the country to conduct
unimpeded investigations into human rights abuses. In addition many individuals
inside Iran are not comfortable carrying out extended conversations on human
rights issues via telephone or email, fearing they are subject to government
surveillance. The Iranian government often accuses critics, including human
rights activists, of being agents of foreign states or entities.

Human Rights Watch interviewed approximately 125 Iranian
between 2005 and 2010. The overwhelming majority of those interviewed
identified either as lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgender persons. For
individuals inside Iran, Human Rights Watch primarily conducted interviews
through online messaging services such as Yahoo Instant Messenger, Google Chat,
and Skype. A few of the interviews were conducted with individuals via email
and telephone. Most of the remaining interviews took place in person with
Iranian LGBT refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey during three separate trips
in 2007, 2008, and 2010. Interviews were primarily conducted in Persian
(Farsi). Some were conducted with the assistance of translators. Depending on
the particular circumstances, interviews lasted between several minutes to several
hours. Most were conducted one-on-one, although some took place in group
settings.

Over the course of the five years, no less than five Human
Rights Watch staff members, including divisional directors, researchers, and consultants,
worked to interview witnesses and gather relevant information for the
preparation of this report.

In addition to witnesses and victims, Human Rights Watch
also interviewed and sought the assistance of Iranian human rights activists
located in the United States, Canada, and Europe, Turkey-based and
international NGOs working on LGBT and refugee issues, and UN bodies such as
the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Some of the
aforementioned individuals and organizations also introduced Human Rights Watch
to the witnesses and victims interviewed for this report.

Human Rights Watch has withheld the real names and locations
of all sources who remain in Iran and those who are currently abroad out of
concern for their security and privacy (and that of their family members).
Where noted, the age of interviewees corresponds to their age at the time the
interview was conducted.

I. Legal Framework
under International Law

[S]exual orientation is a status protected against
discrimination under these provisions.

The Right to Life

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) states that “In countries which have not abolished the
death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious
crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the
crime.”[6]
The Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the covenant, has
said that the death penalty should be a “quite exceptional measure.”[7]

Additionally, the juvenile death penalty is prohibited in
international law, and the prohibition is absolute. Both the ICCPR and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC) specifically prohibit capital punishment for
persons under 18 at the time of the offense.[8]
Iran ratified the ICCPR in 1975 and the CRC in 1994. Between 2007 and 2009, the
UN General Assembly twice specifically called upon Iran to end the juvenile
death penalty.[9]

The Right to Liberty and Security

Article 9 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) affirms that, “Everyone
has the right to liberty and security of person.” Article 9 also
prohibits “arbitrary arrests.” This obligates the state to not ignore
known threats to the lives of people within its jurisdiction, and to take
reasonable and appropriate measures to protect them.[10]
It mandates that the state act where there are clear and identifiable threats
against individuals or groups—including, but not limited to, fully
investigating those threats with the aim of putting an end to them. The UN
Human Rights Committee (charged with authoritatively interpreting the ICCPR and
monitoring countries’ compliance with it) has repeatedly found states in
violation of their obligations under article 9 if they have failed to take
adequate steps to protect people in the face of repeated death threats. The Committee
has also criticized states’ failure to protect people from violence
directed at them because of their sexual orientation.[11]

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or
arbitrary executions has noted that where the criminal justice system has
failed to investigate murders based on sexual orientation or gender identity,
the “state bears responsibility under human rights law for the many who
have been murdered by private individuals.”[12]

Protection against Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment

The ICCPR prohibits any form of torture and inhuman
treatment in articles 7 and 10. Although Iran is not a party to the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(Convention Against Torture), the prohibition of torture is deeply rooted in
customary international law. Torture is also prohibited under Iranian law.[13]

The ICCPR and the Convention Against Torture detail what
states must do to enforce the prohibition, including the duty to investigate,
prosecute, and provide effective remedies when violations occur. [14]
The UN Human Rights Committee has also made clear that the duty to protect
people against torture or inhuman treatment not only extends to acts committed
by government officials, such as police, but also those inflicted by private
individuals.[15]

Right to a “Fair Hearing”

Article 14 of the ICCPR guarantees that

All persons shall be
equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal
charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone
shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and
impartial tribunal established by law.[16]

Article
14 also provides that the accused shall “be informed promptly and in
detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge
against him,” “have adequate time and facilities for the preparation
of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing,” and
be “tried without undue delay.[17]

Non-Discrimination and Fundamental Rights

Article 2 of the ICCPR requires a state party to “ensure
to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the
rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind.”
It also provides that the state must “ensure that any person whose rights
or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective
remedy,” and that “competent authorities shall enforce such
remedies when granted.”[18]
The right to a remedy exists regardless of whether the perpetrator is acting in
an official capacity or a private one. Article 26 guarantees that “all
persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to
the equal protection of the law.” The UN Human Rights Committee has made
clear on several occasions that sexual orientation is a status protected
against discrimination under these provisions.[19] Unequal protection
against violence and unequal access to justice are therefore prohibited under
international law.

The ICCPR affirms the right to privacy (article 17),
security (article 9), freedom of expression (article 19), and freedom of
assembly (article 21). These rights entail the freedom to lead an intimate life
peacefully; the freedom to express oneself, including one’s gender identity,
through clothes or comportment; and the freedom to move and meet in public
without fear of harassment or assault. The state must protect people in exercising
these rights. Persecuting or harassing people for exercising these freedoms
must be prevented where possible and punished where it occurs.

Iranian laws regulating any of these rights and any other
government limitation on these rights can only impose such limitations as are
consistent with international legal standards—that is, they must be strictly
necessary to achieve a legitimate purpose. As the UN Human Rights Committee has
advised, “Restrictive measures must conform to the principle of
proportionality; they must be appropriate to achieve their protective function;
they must be the least intrusive instrument amongst those which might achieve
the desired result; and they must be proportionate to the interest to be
protected.”[20]
Any restrictions must also strictly observe the principle of
non-discrimination.

No such restrictions should ever be used to penalize the
work of human rights defenders, including those who take up issues of sexual
orientation or gender identity. Both the then-Special Representative to the
Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders and the UN special rapporteur on
torture have noted (in the former’s words):

[The] greater risks ...
faced by defenders of the rights of certain groups as their work challenges
social structures, traditional practices and interpretation of religious
precepts that may have been used over long periods of time to condone and
justify violations of the human rights of members of such groups. Of special
importance will be ... human rights groups and those who are active on issues
of sexuality, especially sexual orientation ... These groups are often very
vulnerable to prejudice, to marginalization and to public repudiation, not only
by State forces but other social actors.[21]

Medical Treatment and
Protection of Children

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides
that a child’s views should be given due weight in accordance with his or
her age and maturity, and that children and parents should be informed and
supported about child health.[22]
Interpreting these provisions of the CRC, the Committee on the Rights of the
Child has said that “the child’s right to express his or her views
and to participate … applies to individual health-care decisions,”
and that “Children, including young children, should be included in
decision-making processes, in a manner consistent with their evolving capabilities.”
They should be provided with information about proposed treatments and their
effects and outcomes.[23]
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has also emphasized that adolescents
have the right to participate “actively in planning and programming for
their own health and development.”[24] If they are of
sufficient maturity, informed consent shall be obtained from the adolescent,
and parental consent shall not be necessary.[25]

In its General Comment 14, the UN Committee on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights specifically noted that the relevant article in the
Covenant on Economic Social, and Cultural Rights, which Iran has signed and
ratified, should be read to bar “any discrimination in access to health
care and underlying determinants of health, as well as to means and
entitlements for their procurement, on the grounds of race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth, physical or mental disability, health status (including
HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation [emphasis added] and civil, political,
social or other status, which has the intention or effect of nullifying or
impairing the equal enjoyment or exercise of the right to health.”[26]

According to article 18 of the Yogyakarta Principles:

No person may be forced to undergo any form of medical or
psychological treatment, procedure, testing, or be confined to a medical
facility, based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Notwithstanding any
classifications to the contrary, a person’s sexual orientation and gender
identity are not, in and of themselves, medical conditions and are not to be
treated, cured or suppressed.[27]

Article 18 specifically
addresses treatment of children, and calls on states to “take all
necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that no
child’s body is irreversibly altered by medical procedures in an attempt
to impose a gender identity without the full, free and informed consent of the
child in accordance with the age and maturity of the child and guided by the
principle that in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the
child shall be a primary consideration.”[28]
It also calls on states to “establish child protection mechanisms whereby
no child is at risk of, or subjected to, medical abuse.”[29]

II. Legal
Discrimination against Sexual Minorities

Sodomy is punishable by death so long as both the active
and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted of free will.

—Islamic Penal Code, Article 111.

Prima
Facie Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities

Iranian law criminalizes all sexual relations engaged in
outside the traditional bonds of marriage.[30] Same-sex conduct,
whether consensual or forced, is specifically addressed in Iran’s penal
code. According to Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, same-sex crimes are subject
to hudud, a class of punishment that is fixed pursuant to Shari’a
or divine [Islamic] law, where the claimant is deemed to be God.[31]
Individuals convicted of engaging in same-sex conduct are subject to severe
punishment, including the death penalty.

Iran’s Islamic Penal Code defines lavat
(sodomy) as consummated sexual activity between males, whether penetrative or
not.[32]
Same-sex relations between women, or mosaheqeh, are also punishable.[33]
In both cases, the accused may only be punished if they are determined to be
mature, of sound mind, and willing participants.

Same-sex intercourse between two men is punishable by death
if it is determined that both partners meet these criteria.[34]
The manner of execution is at the judge’s discretion.[35]
If an adult male is convicted of committing same-sex intercourse with a minor
he is to be executed, while the minor shall receive up to 74 lashes unless it
is determined that he has not willingly participated in the act.[36]
Minors convicted of engaging in same-sex intercourse with one another will
receive up to 74 lashes unless one of them is deemed not to have willingly
participated in the act.[37]

Tafkhiz, the
rubbing together of thighs or buttocks (or other forms of non-penetrative sex between
men) is punishable by 100 lashes for each partner. Recidivism is punishable by
death on the fourth conviction.[38] “Lustful” kissing
between two men or two women is punishable by up to 60 lashes.[39]
In addition, “[i]f two men who are not related by blood are found naked
under the same cover without any necessity,” each one will receive up to
99 lashes.[40]

The punishment for women convicted of lesbianism, or mosaheqeh,
is 100 lashes, regardless of whether the partner is active or passive.[41]
Women convicted of mosaheqeh for the fourth time shall be sentenced to
death.[42]
If two women not related by blood are found naked under one cover without
necessity, they will receive less than 100 lashes.[43]

Though the law does not target homosexuals per se and
is applicable to any individual who engages in same-sex conduct (regardless of
whether they self-identify as gay, bisexual, heterosexual, or transgender) it
is, in practice, applied disproportionately to members of Iran’s sexual
minorities. Despite some legal recognition,[44]
Iran’s transgender community is also adversely affected by the country’s
criminalization of same-sex conduct. Iran’s transgender and transsexual persons
are often targeted, harassed, and abused by security forces and others because
they are considered to be homosexuals. Moreover, transgender Iranians who have
not undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and engage in consensual same-sex
conduct are, pursuant to Iranian law, subject to criminal punishment.

Same-sex conduct, whether between men or women, is
considered proven under Iranian law if the accused confesses to the act four
times before a judge, whether orally or in writing, or if four “righteous
men” testify that they have witnessed the act.[45]
In the case of individuals convicted of same-sex relations via confession, a
judge may order the accused to be pardoned if he or she repents.[46]
According to Iranian law, if a man accused of same-sex activities other than
intercourse, or a woman accused of mosaheqeh repents before the giving
of testimony, the conviction will be thrown out.[47]
In the absence of confessions or available testimony by eyewitnesses, a judge
may enter a conviction for lavat based on his “knowledge.”[48]
The law requires that rulings based on a judge’s “knowledge”
derive from evidence, and not merely personal belief that the defendant is
guilty of the crime.

Although some standards of evidence proving same-sex conduct
are seemingly high (i.e. proof based on eyewitness testimony or confessions),
the very real threat of prosecution under the law and the serious punishment
for those convicted of “homosexual crimes” indicate prima facie
legal discrimination against Iran’s sexual minorities. Legal provisions
criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct run afoul of Iran’s
international legal obligations under the ICCPR, which only allows death
sentences for “the most serious crimes.”[49]
In addition, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) prohibits Iran
from sentencing individuals to death for crimes allegedly committed while under
the age of 18.[50]

Perhaps more worrying, however, are the practical effects of
Iran’s legal provisions criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct.
Despite the seemingly high standard of proof required under Iranian law to
establish same-sex conduct, the evidentiary provisions as written are subject,
in practice, to widely varying interpretations and abuse.

The provisions allowing
convictions based on the “knowledge” of the judge or on confessions
are particularly troubling. Article 120 of the Iranian Penal Code allows a Shari’a
judge to reach a verdict on sodomy based on his knowledge as “derived
through customary methods,” which in practice enables judges to rely on
tenuous circumstantial evidence to determine whether a crime has occurred. This
provision also makes it easy in practice for a judge’s individual
prejudices toward a defendant’s appearance or demeanor sway his rulings.[51]

Iranian law bans the practice of torture, particularly when
used to extract confessions, and evidence acquired through the use of force is
inadmissible in court.[52]
In addition, those responsible for torture are subject to prosecution and
punishment.[53]
Yet the practice of torturing prisoners to extract confessions is relatively
common in Iran, and forced confessions are often accepted as evidence in
criminal trials.[54]

In June 2002, Iran’s Council of Guardians—a
committee of twelve senior clerics—vetoed a bill which had been passed by
the Majlis (parliament) which would have placed certain restrictions on
the use of torture, and would have limited the judicial use of confessions
obtained under duress.[55]
The refusal of Iran’s government to enact even rudimentary safeguards
against torture, whether specifically sanctioned by the judge or committed by
police and security forces, sent a message that confessions can be obtained
from arrestees by any means.

Other Laws that May
Apply to Sexual Minorities

Morality Laws Affecting
Sexual Minorities

Iran’s sexual minorities are also affected by criminal
laws that do not specifically address same-sex conduct, but are applied to
individuals who do not conform to socially acceptable norms on gender and
morality. In fact, sexual minorities targeted by security forces in both public
and private spaces often face charges related to offenses against public morals
or chastity instead of sexual crimes. Examples of such laws include those that
penalize the violating of “religious sanctities” in public,[56]
operating an establishment of ill-repute or corruption,[57]
and encouraging others to engage in “corrupt” and “obscene”
acts.[58]
Additional provisions under Iran’s penal code address the production, use,
and dissemination of material that is considered immoral under Iranian law,
including LGBT websites, literature, and other paraphernalia.[59]

During the course of its
investigation, Human Rights Watch interviewed several LGBT Iranians who were
ultimately charged with various moral offenses having nothing to do with
same-sex conduct. For example, in September 2003, police arrested a group of
men at a private gathering in one of their homes in Shiraz and detained them
for several days. According to Amir, one of the arrested men, the judiciary
charged five of the defendants with “participation in a corrupt gathering”
and fined them.[60] The person who organized the
private gathering was charged with various crimes, including “production
and possession of indecent and obscene CDs, video tapes, and audio tapes,”
“organizing a corrupt gathering and encouraging youth to engage in
corrupt and obscene acts,” and “offending the public chastity.”

Additionally, Human Rights Watch has uncovered evidence
suggesting that prosecutors will charge human rights defenders working on issues
affecting sexual minorities, or anyone seen by the government as publicizing or
promoting LGBT culture with violating national security laws. These crimes may include
“propaganda against the regime,” “disturbing the public
order,” “participation in an illegal gathering, “and “propaganda
against the system.”[61]
These individuals may also be subject to two other hadd crimes (crimes
against God): moharebeh , or “enmity against God,” and efsad-e
fel arz, or “sowing corruption on earth.” Both these crimes are
punishable by death.[62]

Military Exemption
Regulations

Military service is compulsory for all Iranian men who reach
the age of 18.[63]
Military regulations, however, prohibit gays, transgender Iranians, and MSM from
serving in the armed forces.[64]
These individuals are permanently exempt from military service because they are
considered moral and sexual deviants with “behavioral disorders.”[65]
To be classified as unfit for service, men must undergo a series of
psychological and physical tests and overcome numerous administrative barriers
in order to prove that they are gay or transgender. Despite the long, tedious,
and at times humiliating process involved, hundreds of individuals choose to
seek exemption to avoid service.

In addition to suffering humiliation during the exemption
process, several individuals who had received exemptions based on their sexual
orientation (and not gender identity)[66]
told Human Rights Watch that they were vulnerable to discrimination, especially
in the area of employment, because their identification cards stated the
reasons for their exemption as “behavioral disorders” such as “sexual
deviancy.”[67]

Human Rights Watch
believes that state exclusion of homosexual and transgender men from the
military is another example of discrimination against sexual minorities, as
clearly established by international courts such as the European Court of Human
Rights.[68] The reason that Iran provides
such an exemption for homosexual and transgender Iranians, as well as the
procedures it imposes on men seeking that exemption, reflect the state’s
refusal to treat sexual minorities as persons who deserve to be treated with
dignity and equal to other citizens.

Individuals seeking an exemption must first fill out forms
provided by the Compulsory Military Service Bureau for all men over 18 who are
required to serve. The applicant then undergoes initial tests conducted by
private doctors or psychiatrists who can vouch for the applicant’s “sexual
deviancy.” There are few doctors in Iran who provide these tests, and
most are located in Tehran. In addition, most doctors who perform the tests
refuse to do so unless applicants are accompanied by their parents, many of
whom are undoubtedly unaware that their children are gay or transgender.[69]
The lack of doctors willing and able to perform these tests, the parental
notification requirements enforced by doctors, and the costs associated with
the tests effectively foreclose the exemption option to thousands of
individuals who may otherwise be interested in pursuing this path.

After a private doctor fills out the forms, the applicant
sends them back to the Compulsory Military Service Bureau. He then receives a
notification, usually by mail, for an appointment to visit a local hospital for
additional psychological and physical testing. The results of these tests are
then forwarded to the Bureau, and the applicant is required to report there for
a final series of interviews and tests conducted by government doctors that
will determine whether he receives his permanent exemption.[70]

Saeed H., a 24-year-old gay male, described a fairly typical
path to military exemption:

At first the doctors spoke with me alone. Then they had me
speak to a doctor in the company of a parent. I begged my mother to come with
me. I promised her that I would begin showing interest in women if she agreed.
After two meetings I was given a series of written tests. I had to answer five
pages of irrelevant questions about my childhood and about my life. Finally I
was sent to two other doctors for a second opinion. After a total of 10
sessions I received my exemption.[71]

Despite the fact that the military exemption procedures for
gay men and transgender Iranians have been in effect for years and are
considered fairly routine, applicants are not immune from harassment and abuse.
Mohammad-Reza, a 31-year-old gay male, received his medical exemption a few
years prior to leaving Iran. He visited the offices of Dr. Fereydoon Mehrabi, a
well-known psychiatrist who has conducted many of these tests for individuals
seeking military exemption. He described his experience during the exemption
process:

[After mailing in your forms, y]ou receive an appointment
at the military hospital with army doctors. When I went there, the doctor said,
“Why do you want to get an exemption? You’ll love it there.”[72]
Then he showed me pictures of soldiers. His words upset me so much. He was
mocking me. Then he informed me that they need to run more tests. When I
stepped in the room [for more testing] I was shaking.

Then you go and take more tests. You go before a council of
doctors and you tell them your difficulties. Thankfully they did not find it
necessary for me to get a physical exam. But many of my friends had to do it.
You basically have to bend over and [the doctor] checks your anus with his
finger. Then the doctors write down their opinion. The head doctor was nice to
me. They identified me as a “classic homosexual.”[73]

Meysan, a 26-year-old gay male, was one of the applicants
forced to undergo the humiliating physical exams that forensic doctors conduct
for the ostensible purpose of determining whether they engage in anal sex. In
light of the severe penalties available under Iranian law for those proven to
have engaged in sodomy, many are understandably suspicious of the exemption
process, which Meysan described as follows:

I had a difficult time proving that I was gay. The military
doctors didn’t believe it, so they sent me to the forensic doctor. They
told me that I behaved like a man, and that I was a man. I told them that this
had nothing to do with whether or not I am a man. [In any case,] the forensic
doctor performed an anal test on me. It was so humiliating.[74]

Meysan continued:

The process was so difficult. When I finally got my
exemption card, it had no value for me. I didn’t need to go to a doctor
to know who I am.[75]

Ahmad, a 28-year-old gay male, told Human Rights Watch that
a private doctor and army doctors he visited during the process tried to
convince him that he was transgender, and not gay: “I told the army
officials that I am gay and cannot be in the military. They said no, you are
not gay. There are no gay people in Iran. You are a transsexual.”[76]

III. The Death Penalty
for Same-Sex Acts

It’s in the law. In Iran sodomy is punished by
hanging, stoning, or decapitation. Even the most uneducated man in the mosque
knows this law. Even a child in Iran knows this law.

—Neli, Transwoman Iranian in exile, October 29, 2007

Iran is one of a few countries that applies the death
penalty to consensual same-sex conduct. As of May 2010, six other countries had
laws allowing the execution of individuals convicted of engaging in homosexual
conduct: Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria.[77]
In recent years there has been considerable debate regarding how many
individuals have been executed by the state for having committed same-sex acts,
if those executed had engaged in consensual sex (or any sex at all) or not, and
whether the state specifically targets homosexuals for execution. Notwithstanding
these debates, the fact remains that Iranian law provides the death penalty for
consensual same-sex acts, the threat of execution hangs above all Iranians who
engage in such acts, and Iran’s sexual minorities are disproportionately
affected by these discriminatory laws.

Executions for the
Crime of Lavat (Sodomy)

Although Iranian law prescribes the death penalty for
non-penetrative sex acts between men and lesbianism, the overwhelming majority
of reported prosecutions, convictions, and executions of individuals in Iran
relate to boys or men charged with sodomy. It is extremely difficult to
determine whether those charged and executed for same-sex conduct are in fact
members of Iran’s LGBT community. It is equally difficult to confirm the
frequency of executions for same-sex conduct.

There are several reasons for this. First, trials on moral
charges in Iran are usually held in camera (i.e. in private). Second,
international outrage over the frequency of executions has led the government
to tightly control press reporting of the death penalty.[78]
Third, sodomy and same-sex conduct is punishable for heterosexuals as well as
for members of Iran’s LGBT community.[79].
Fourth, the conservative nature of Iranian society and the shame associated
with homosexuality (and non-conforming sexual or gender expression generally) often
complicate any inquiry into whether the individual charged is actually an LGBT
person.

Finally, Iranians who have been convicted of lavat and
then executed have rarely, if ever, been charged solely with that crime. In
most cases the court also convicted them on other charges, some of which carry
the death penalty. Without a case-by-case analysis, it is not always possible
to know in which cases, if any, the court sentenced the defendants to death
because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.[80]
For example, in several notable death penalty cases during the past decade, the
government charged defendants with a variety of sexual crimes warranting the
death penalty, including, for example, sodomy, adultery, or rape. In at least
some cases, Iranian prosecutors have included serious moral or sex charges when
prosecuting individuals primarily for political reasons.[81]

Perhaps the most
controversial case illustrating the difficulty of accurately reporting on the
execution of LGBT persons is the case of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, two adolescent
boys who were publicly hanged in the city of Mashhad, northeast Iran, on July
19, 2005. The two were charged and convicted of lavat beh onf (rape) of
a 13-year-old boy after allegedly admitting to the crime, according to Iranian
authorities.[82] In addition to the outrage
surrounding their ages at the time they allegedly committed the crime (at least
one of them was under 18), some rights groups maintained that the two were
executed because they were gay. Human Rights Watch condemned their execution,
but could not verify that they were, in fact, executed because they were gay or
had engaged in consensual same-sex conduct.[83]

In 2007, a local court sentenced Makwan Mouloudzadeh,
20-years-old, to death for allegedly raping three boys in 2000, when he was
only 13-years-old. Like the case of Asgari and Marhoni, Moloudzadeh’s
plight drew international criticism from numerous activists and organizations,
some of whom claimed that Mouloudzadeh was being targeted because he was gay.[84]
Human Rights Watch could not confirm this assertion, but urged the Iranian
judiciary to revoke Mouloudzadeh’s death sentence, noting that he was a child
at the time the alleged offenses were committed, and pointing to numerous
irregularities with Mouloudzadeh’s trial and conviction. These include
the fact the defendant repudiated his confession at trial (which he claimed had
been secured through torture), and the purported victims repudiated their
accusations. In several press releases issued in this case, Human Rights Watch
reminded local court authorities in Kermanshah that they were legally obligated
to follow the judiciary’s order to allow further judicial review of the
case.[85]

Mouloudzadeh was executed on December 5, 2007.

Meanwhile, Iranian newspapers have reported on cases during
the past several years where individuals have been executed for allegedly
engaging in sodomy. According to the Persian-language daily Etemad, for
example, Tehran’s criminal court sentenced two men to death in 2005.[86]
The wife of one of the men discovered a videotape of the two engaging in
homosexual acts and reported them to the authorities, Etemad reported.
On November 13, 2005, the semi-official Tehran daily Kayhan reported
that the Iranian government publicly hanged two men, Mokhtar N. (24-years-old)
and Ali A. (25-years-old), in the Shahid Bahonar Square of the northern town of
Gorgan, after they were convicted of lavat (sodomy).[87]

The ICCPR states that nations that have not abolished the
death penalty must impose it only for the “most serious crimes.”
The Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the covenant, has
said that the death penalty should be a “quite exceptional measure.”

Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all
circumstances because of its cruel and inhumane nature. Human rights principles
and protections are founded upon respect for the inherent dignity of all human
beings and the inviolability of the human person. These principles cannot be
reconciled with the death penalty, a form of punishment that is unique in its
cruelty and finality. The intrinsic fallibility of all criminal justice systems
assures that even when full due process of law is respected, innocent persons
may be executed.

Current Death Sentences for the Crime of Lavat

Human Rights Watch has also documented several cases where
individuals have been convicted of sodomy and are awaiting execution. Many of
these individuals were children under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged
offense.[88]
Moshen G., from Shiraz, and Nemat Safavi, from Ardebil were accused and
convicted in 2009 in separate cases of committing consensual same-sex acts when
they were under the age of 18. Moshen G. denied the charges and no witnesses
testified against him. Safavi was arrested at the age of 16 in 2006 and tried
by a court in Ardebil. At this writing, no date has been set for their
execution. The lawyer representing both men has repeatedly expressed concerns
that his clients could be executed at any moment.[89]

The courts sentenced the two to death despite the
requirement in Iran’s Shari’a-based criminal code that
sexual offenses require a confession repeated four times or the testimony of
four male witnesses. In the case of Mohsen G., the judge relied on article 120
of the penal code allowing him to reach a decision regarding guilt based solely
on his “knowledge.” No information is available on the source of
evidence for the judgment against Safavi.[90]

In July 2010, a court in the northwestern city of Tabriz
issued an execution order for Ebrahim Hamidi. Hamidi was initially charged and
convicted, along with three of his friends, of raping a young man. The four
were initially convicted of lavat based on the testimony of the alleged
rape victim. Later, the victim withdrew his accusation and merely alleged that
it was his belief that the four had attempted to rape him. Three of the four
defendants were eventually acquitted of the charge, but Hamidi was convicted of
forcible sodomy based on article 120 of the penal code allowing judges to find
defendants guilty of sodomy based on their “knowledge.”[91]
Hamidi was 16-years-old, and thus a child, at the time of his alleged offense
and when he was charged with committing sodomy. Both the ICCPR and the CRC
prohibit the execution of individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time
of the alleged offense.

According to a blog entry written by Mohammad Mostafaei,
their lawyer, Hamidi should have also been acquitted of rape because of
procedural irregularities in his case. Mostafaei stated that his client was
coerced and tortured into signing a confession statement admitting blame for
the crime.[92]
In his blog, Mostafaei wrote:

I have asserted in the past that many of the execution
cases I have agreed to take on were flawed to the point that a death sentence
should not have been issued. This case is one of those cases where an innocent
person has been sentenced to execution.[93]

Human Rights Watch is aware of at least four other cases of
individuals who have received death sentences for lavat beh onf, or
rape, and are in danger of execution.

Death Sentences against
Juvenile Offenders

Iran remains the world leader in executing individuals who
committed an offense while under the age of 18.

In 2009, Iran executed at least four juvenile offenders; in
2008, it executed seven, and in 2007 at least eight.[94]More than 100 juvenile offenders currently remain under sentence of death
for alleged crimes including rape, drug-related offenses, and murder.[95]
Despite all evidence to the contrary, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed in
2008 that his country does not execute people for crimes committed before they
were 18-years-old.[96]

Although the number of juvenile offenders who were executed
in 2009 was less than in previous years, Iran has still not taken concrete
steps towards abolishing the practice. In February 2008, the head of the
Iranian judiciary established a “non-binding moratorium”—essentially
an administrative circular that is non-binding for judges—on juvenile
executions. Also in 2008, authorities announced that Iranian judicial
authorities would ban the juvenile death penalty for non-murder-related
offenses, effective immediately, pending parliamentary approval. But Iran
continues to issue and implement death sentences in cases involving juvenile
offenders.[97]
To date, no ban on the execution of juvenile offenders has been approved by
both Iran’s Majlis and the Guardian Council, the constitutional
body in charge of determining whether laws passed by the Majlis are in
line with Shari’a law. [98]

The juvenile death penalty is prohibited in international
law, and the prohibition is absolute. Both the CRC and the ICCPR specifically
prohibit capital punishment for persons under 18 at the time of the offense.
Iran ratified the ICCPR in 1975 and the CRC in 1994. Between 2007 and 2009, the
UN General Assembly twice specifically called upon Iran to end the juvenile
death penalty, and member states again raised their concerns regarding this
issue during Iran’s Universal Periodic Review in February 2010.[99]

IV. Family, School and
Society

When your family does not accept you and wishes the worst
for you, what can you expect from society?

—Ali, Gay Iranian in exile, September 9, 2007

As in many other countries, Iran’s
sexual minorities suffer much harassment, discrimination, and abuse at the
hands of private actors, including members of their family and society at
large. An overwhelming majority of the individuals interviewed by Human Rights
Watch during the course of its investigations maintained that many of the
problems suffered by sexual minorities stemmed from abuse and neglect at home.

Yet in Iran sexual minorities are particularly vulnerable to
such abuse because state law criminalizes same-sex conduct and imposes the
death penalty for certain same-sex acts. Not only are sexual minorities prevented
from availing themselves of the general protections afforded under the law,
they must also fear possible prosecution under the law should they seek help
from authorities. Iranian law, therefore, creates a “chilling effect”
on the ability (and desire) of victims to report abuses against them, and
renders them more vulnerable to harassment, abuse, blackmail, and extortion by
private actors.

The failure of the state to investigate, prosecute, and
punish private actors, including family members who perpetrate violence against
Iran’s sexual minorities, violates Iran’s obligations under
international law. These obligations include the responsibility to protect
citizens “without distinction of any kind,” and to ensure that
those whose rights are “violated have an effective remedy.” The
right to a remedy exists regardless of whether the perpetrator is acting in an
official capacity or a private one.[100]
The UN Human Rights Committee has made clear on several occasions that sexual
orientation is a status protected against discrimination under these provisions.[101]

Harassment and Abuse by Family and Relatives

For many LGBT persons, the bonds with their families are
often strained—and even severed—leaving many more vulnerable to
abuse than they otherwise might be with such a support system. These tensions,
which often manifest themselves at an early age, lead family members to strictly
monitor their children’s lives, lash out against them in frustration,
anger, or shame, and sometimes abandon them altogether.[102]

Matin, a 24-year-old gay male from a small village outside
of Esfahan recounted how he was summoned to the local cleric’s office in
a mosque after his parents and school officials began to suspect that he was
engaging in homosexual relations with other boys. Matin was around 13-years-old
at the time:

When I went to the mosque the cleric asked me why I don’t
come more regularly. “Why do you distance yourself from us?” he
asked. “Why don’t you confide in me?” I denied that I had a
problem. I challenged the validity of the allegations against me. He told me
that what I was doing was wrong, and that I was shaming my family and the
village. Then he asked, “Do you know what the punishment for lavat
is? He read from the Quran, the part about Lot and God’s wrath. He then
urged me to follow the right path and confess to my sins. “It’s
never too late to change,” he said.[103]

Many LGBT Iranians interviewed by Human Rights Watch
maintained that they felt “different” from others at an early age.
Depending on their personalities and family situations, some were more
comfortable in expressing their differences, while others shied away from
social interaction. Most felt that this “difference,” often made
them the targets of harassment and abuse, including sexual abuse, by both
immediate and extended family members. Hossein M., a 26-year-old gay Iranian in
exile, describes a pattern of harassment and abuse experienced by many LGBT
persons at the hands of family members:

Problems arise when family members start to realize that
you are different from them because of your appearance, the way you act, or the
things you say. They can’t accept this, and your problems begin. For
example when I was a child, the older cousins and children would always make
fun of me and call me bacheh susul [mama’s boy] sometimes. They
would even take me to an empty room and sexually violate me. After they were
done they would call me a kuni [faggot].

My parents eventually became aware of this. They treated me
very badly. My mother would say, “What have I done to deserve having a
sick child?” She then threw me out of the house.[104]

Human Rights Watch found that family restrictions and
monitoring were generally more severe against girls than boys. Not
surprisingly, families ratcheted up the pressure once they suspected their
daughters of showing too much interest in other girls. Roodabeh, a 30- year-old
lesbian, recounts a fairly typical story of a mother’s horrified reaction
when she discovered her six-year-old playing with a girl cousin:

My first experience of liking a female was when I was
six-years-old. I liked my girl cousin. We were always together. And sometimes
we played doctor in their kitchen, during the afternoon while our mothers
napped. I always liked to touch her. I would pull her shirt up and rest my head
on her chest. And sometimes I would taste her breasts. One day my mother walked
in on us. What a scene. The commotion that took place! I received a good
beating. And then my mother grabbed me by the ear. We left dramatically. She
shouted that I had shamed her.[105]

As Roodabeh got older, problems with her mother
continued:

My mother would always say that I am “sick.”
She would ask, “Is it possible for a woman to like another woman in such
a way?” And she was always surprised by my friendship with some of my
female friends. She would always fight with me about this. I remember the first
girl I fell in love with. Her name was Fatemeh…. My mother found out.
When Fatemeh called she would not give me the phone. And when I used to pick up
the phone she would come on the line crying and saying, “You are a hamjensbaz!
You are ruined! Now what should I do with you?”[106]

A large number of LGBT persons interviewed by Human Rights
Watch indicated receiving beatings from their parents or siblings either
because they acted on their sexual desires, or because they revealed their
sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents. Saeed H. describes a
fairly typical incident of abuse suffered at the hands of his father:

In ninth grade [where students are typically
15-16-years-old], when I first had a PC and access to internet, I would go into
straight chatrooms and chat with boys. Eventually I found gay chatrooms. I met
a boy in one of these chatrooms and he became my boyfriend. We started off by
talking on the phone and after a while began seeing one another. Around this
time my father found some gay pictures on my computer. He confronted me and
severely beat me. I went home one day and he just started beating me. I managed
to get out of the house and went to a friend’s house…. I left home
and went to live with my boyfriend in a small town near Mashhad called Shahr-e
Golabad, where my boyfriend went to university. I lived with him for eight to
nine months. During this time I tried going back home but my father would not
allow me inside the house. I talked to my mother occasionally from Shahr-e
Golabad but had no contact with my dad.[107]

Interviews also revealed a common pattern of abuse suffered
at the hands of older brothers. This abuse included harassment and threats,
constant monitoring, and violence. Several interviewees recounted instances of
violence perpetrated by siblings who allegedly worked with members of Iran’s
security forces, including the police, basij , or Sepah.[108]
Ali, a 25-year-old gay male, recalls:

For me the biggest problems were within my family. As I got
older, because of my appearance and behavior, things became worse. My older
brother is very conservative and also religious. He works for the Ministry of
Guidance. I was very different from my brother. You see, in conservative Iranian
families like my family if a boy wants to change his appearance by plucking his
eyebrows or growing his hair long, there are bound to be many problems. They
don’t understand these things. They think that being a homosexual is only
about sex—a physical need. And this really hurts me. They see me as sick
or crazy. When your family does not accept you and wishes the worst for you
what can you expect from society?[109]

Ali went on to describe how his brother later found a video
of him and his boyfriend, Sohail, sharing intimate moments:

I hid this film at my house and would watch it from time to
time when I missed Sohail … One day I took the film out from its hiding
place and was watching it on a small handy cam. The film was only recorded on
the handy cam and not on video. I did not know that my brother was home. While
I was watching the film my mother called me to come downstairs. I left the
handy cam next to my computer. While I was downstairs I suddenly heard my older
brother screaming upstairs: “What have you done? What filth have you been
up to!” He was in my room. I knew he had seen the film. He came
downstairs and started beating me, saying that he would kill me. I managed to
escape out of the house. I was very scared. My brother is connected to the Sepah.[110]

Farzam, a 26-year-old gay male from Talesh in northern Iran,
recounted the beating that his brother, a basij, gave him after he was
arrested for attending a gay party in the city of Rasht in northwestern Iran:

A week later my brother
came to the house. I went out to greet him. He beat me so hard he broke my nose
and right hand. He struck me so many times he got tired after a while. Then he
locked me inside a room and beat me with a hose.

… He came back at night. My father didn’t say
anything to him. My brother said that I had shamed the family, and that he
would kill me [if I continued down this path]. He said I was affecting his job.
Later he shaved my eyebrows and hair with a razor. I didn’t leave the
house for a whole month.[111]

Medical and
Psychological Treatment

Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of LGBT persons who
were directed, usually by their parents, to undergo medical and psychological
treatment either because of their parents’ suspicion or concern regarding
their child’s sexual or gender expression, or after the children revealed
their sexual orientation or gender identity to family members. Families sought
the assistance of a variety of health care providers, including family
practitioners, gynecologists, neurologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists.
Human Rights Watch also interviewed individuals whose parents had taken their
children to “sexologists” and psychiatrists, mostly in Tehran, who
specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual and gender issues.
Treatment options ranged from psychological counseling and testing, prescription
medication such as hormone therapy, and the recommendation that patients
consider sex reassignment surgery.

At least some interviewees told Human Rights Watch that they
were coerced into undergoing ineffective or dangerous treatments to correct
their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Shabnam, a 26-year-old lesbian, explains what happened to
her and her girlfriend after she revealed her sexual orientations to their
parents:

I went to a hormone doctor and after some tests he told my
mother: “Everything is normal. Your daughter is a woman.” I have
also been to psychiatrists and taken pills. I was given [antidepressants] that
made me nauseous and I slept all the time. Later, I found out that these are
medications that they give to very sick people in hospitals.[112]

Mona, Shabnam’s girlfriend, describes what happened to
her when she told her mother that she is a lesbian:

My mother started crying. She said, “Don’t be
upset, we will help you. Everything will be fixed.” I thought perhaps I
could change. The next day we went to see a psychologist. I told the doctor
everything. He told me to attend his psychotherapy sessions and promised he
would cure me. But instead he told my mom everything I had told him [in
private] and suggested that she send me abroad. My mom took me to another
doctor. He wrote a prescription that was supposed to repress my sexual desires
and gave me sleeping pills. He told me that I am mentally ill. I did not take
it.[113]

The third doctor gave me the wrong dose of medication and I
went into a coma for three days. I remember it was in a brown capsule. This is
not a pleasant thing for me to remember. My mother was so upset and went to see
the doctor. The guy came out and said, “It is not important, she is not
worth it anyways.” After that they sent me to a hormone doctor. The
results came out normal. They did not take me to another doctor again. After a
while they suggested that I get married.[114]

Mona refused her parent’s wishes.

Farrokh, a 28-year-old gay male from Karaj, told Human
Rights Watch that his parents took him to a series of psychiatrists and
psychologists after he told them that he was gay. According to Farrokh, some of
these specialists were self-styled “Islamic psychiatrists” who
convinced him that he was not homosexual:

When I was 17-years-old my parents took me to a
psychiatrist, in part because they suspected I was gay. I told my psychiatrist
I thought I was gay and he told my parents. It was very unprofessional of him to
do this. They started pressuring me. Then they took me to an Islamic
psychiatrist who told me I had an illness but that I could get better …

By the time I was 21 they had convinced me that I was, in
fact, bisexual. Everyone is bisexual, they said. “If you want you can be
a heterosexual.” So I got myself a girlfriend for a year and two months.
But we never had sex. After some time we decided to sleep together, but I just
got nauseous. So my relationship eventually came to an end. She thought I was
being serious. I had been honest with her about my past, but I believed I could
be straight [and she believed me].[115]

Another gay male, Saeed H., a 24-year-old gay male told
Human Rights Watch that his parents checked him into a psychiatric hospital
that subjected him to shock therapy when he was 20-years-old:

One day my parents came to my grandmother’s house and
forced me to leave with them. They took me to a psychiatric hospital called
Dehkadeh Olumi located in Tehran. They checked me in against my will. The first
day I was screaming and protesting so they gave me a shot, which made me very
sleepy. The next morning and every other morning that I was there I was woken
up early in the morning and given electric shocks. They would first give me an
anaesthetic before shocking me. The doctor said that it would cure me. Each
time they applied electric shocks to me my brain would slow down and my memory
would get blurry. I was really depressed. My mother got upset because she
realized that I was getting worse, not better. She begged my father and they
stopped shock therapy. After a few days my parents agreed to have me released.
I was at the psychiatric hospital for eight days. They gave me electric shocks
five out of the eight days I was there. After I was released I did not return
home. I cut all relations with my family. I was only with friends. I stayed
with several of them. During this time I started to cut myself because I was
severely depressed. I even had to go to the hospital a few times because of
this.[116]

The provision of medical care to children and the right of
parents to decide what is best for their children is a complex issue beyond the
scope of this report. Notwithstanding these complexities, international law
provides that a child has the right “to express his or her views and to
participate … [in] individual health-care decisions,” and that “children,
including young children, should be included in decision-making processes, in a
manner consistent with their evolving capabilities.”

In addition, Article 18 of the Yogyakarta Principles
provides:

No person may be forced to undergo any form of medical or
psychological treatment, procedure, testing, or be confined to a medical
facility, based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Notwithstanding any
classifications to the contrary, a person’s sexual orientation and gender
identity are not, in and of themselves, medical conditions and are not to be
treated, cured or suppressed.[117]

Article 18 specifically
addresses treatment of children, and calls on states to “take all
necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that no
child’s body is irreversibly altered by medical procedures in an attempt
to impose a gender identity without the full, free and informed consent of the
child in accordance with the age and maturity of the child and guided by the
principle that in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the
child shall be a primary consideration.”[118]
It also calls on states to “establish child protection mechanisms whereby
no child is at risk of, or subjected to, medical abuse.”[119]

Harassment and Abuse at
School, University, and Society at Large

Many LGBT persons interviewed by Human Rights Watch
indicated that primary school was one of the most traumatic periods in their
life. This is the first time many were exposed to the harsh realities of the
outside world, where looking, acting, or feeling different often meant
ridicule, harassment, and at times, abuse suffered at the hands of classmates,
teachers, and others. Many interviewees told Human Rights Watch that they were
the victims of sexual harassment and abuse at school perpetrated by both
classmates and teachers.

Mani, a 29-year-old gay male from Tehran, said:

In primary school, we realize we are different from our
peers, and because of this we become the focus of ridicule. The [kids] call us
names like khaleh zanak (literally “auntie lady”) because we
appear more feminine and because we don’t like to play like other boys. It
is from this time that we begin to think that there is in fact something wrong
with us.[120]

While some LGBT persons told Human Rights Watch that things
got better for them after middle school and high school, others indicated that
their problems only grew worse as they got older. Several individuals shared
problems they encountered with university disciplinary committees (called Edareh
or Dafter-e Herasat) or student basijis. Students caught for “immoral
activity” were often suspended or expelled from school altogether.
Several individuals told Human Rights Watch that their families pulled them out
of school so they would not “shame” the family honor.

Hossein M. describes his expulsion from university:

I had searched and looked at gay pictures on my laptop at
the university computer lab. I guess I was being monitored because shortly
after I was stopped by the university disciplinary committee. I was taken into
their office and told that that they had seen the sites that I had visited
online. They accused me of spreading hamjensbaz culture in society and expelled
me from the university.[121]

Farzam, a dental student at Azad University in Tehran,
recounted what happened to him after he was caught kissing his boyfriend while
attending university in 2008:

Ali-Reza followed me and we gave each other a short kiss
next to the lockers. We didn’t realize there was a camera there. A few
days later I went to get my papers signed for graduation. Instead they sent me
to Herasat (government units charged with monitoring public order and
security at universities and public institutions throughout the country).[122]
They told me I had to go to see the president of the university. I asked if
there was a problem, and they said no. They sent me to a room in which [name
omitted], the head of Herasat, and the president were seated. I walked
in and said ‘Hello.’ They did not respond. Then someone turned a
monitor in the room on and there was a picture of me kissing Ali-Reza. “Why
have you done this?” they asked. “You have a sexual disease.”[123]

University authorities eventually expelled Farzam from the university
despite the fact that he was weeks away from receiving his diploma.

In addition to the pressures at home and school, sexual
minorities endure harassment and abuse from society at large. Hossein M.
described his life:

From the time I started school up until university I had
problems with other students and my teachers. As I got older I had problems
when just walking in the streets. I took care of my appearance. For example, I
plucked my eyebrows and styled my hair. These sorts of things are not accepted
in Iranian society. I was often called names like bacheh kuni (young
faggot). If I took a taxi, I was often propositioned and even molested. In
stores the shopkeepers would jokingly say, “You don’t have to pay
now. You can pay us in other ways later.” These things would really hurt
me. I felt like I was a whore. My family would really restrict me. One time my
father caught me in an intimate situation with another boy and as punishment he
made me stick my hands in the toilet. At university many of my peers wondered
why I didn’t look at the other girls. I was blackmailed a few times
because some of my classmates suspected that I was into boys.[124]

Sohail, a 24-year-old gay male echoed Hossein’s
concerns:

My primary problems have
been with my family. Second to that there are the problems I have had in
schools, in university, and with work. When I was younger in school no one
wanted to befriend me. And later when I was older I could not find work because
no one wanted to employ me—all of this because they thought that I was
different. When my parents became aware they really restricted me. I was not
allowed to leave the house without informing them about where I was going and
what I would be doing. They were suspicious of boys my age from school who
would call the house with homework-related questions. I had many problems at
university with teachers, staff, and also other students. I was constantly
reprimanded and harassed because of the way I looked and how I acted.
Eventually my father made me withdraw from university because he was scared I
would shame the family.[125]

V. Government Harassment and Abuse in Public Space

I mean, how could you just pick someone up in the streets,
take them away, rape them, and then just drop them back off as if nothing
happened?

–Saba, gay Iranian in exile, September 28, 2007

Iranian law does not criminalize homosexuality per se,
yet Iran’s sexual minorities face regular harassment and abuse by members
of Iran’s police, security, and intelligence forces in public spaces
throughout the country. Research suggests that the majority of street
confrontations between security forces and sexual minorities likely occur not
because individuals are targeted as part of a systematic effort to identify and
root out sexual minorities, but because they get caught up in larger crackdowns
by moral police ensuring that all Iranians comply with the country’s
Islamic dress code.[126]

Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch has documented cases where
security forces seemed to single out individuals because they suspected them of
being “gay,” either because of their physical appearance, mode of
expression, or where they were and with whom they associated with. Street confrontations
occur more frequently in the capital Tehran and larger urban areas presumably
because urban centers have larger populations of LGBT, public space is not as
easy to monitor or regulate as in smaller towns, and sexual minorities tend to
be more expressive with their physical appearance.

Common modes of expression for gay males include growing
their hair, plucking eyebrows, shaving chest hair, wearing thumb rings, or
applying makeup. These often incite and provoke the anger of police and basij
forces. Ahmad, a 26-year-old gay male from Shiraz, recounts how the
city’s moral police accost people in the streets:

A few times the moral policegot me in the streets
[of Shiraz] … The guy took me into the street and slapped me across the
face. I asked him what I had done. He said, “You look like a girl. You
are like those gay men, like those lavatkars. Then he said, “Next
time I catch you I’m really going to take care of you.” He started
kicking me so hard that a woman passing by pleaded with him and said, “What
are you doing to this poor boy?” Then [the officer] got on his motorcycle
and left.[127]

He continued:

The second time I had just come from Shiraz and it was
summertime. [Police officers] searched my bag and found a necklace with a
symbol of 32 men standing next to each other. They asked, “Why do you
have this?” I answered, “I just liked it.” They also found
lip liner in my bag. I have green eyes. They smacked me across my face really
hard. I asked them why they did this, and they responded: “So your lenses
fall out.” I said, “No this is my real eye [color].”

… Then one of them turned to his partner and said, “What
shall we do with him?” His partner said, “Forget it, he’s
dirty.” Then he turned to me and said, “Next time we catch you, we’ll
whip you.”[128]

Moreover, cities such as Tehran have areas known to be
frequented by gay men, MSM, and transgender Iranians (particularly transwomen).[129]
At least some of these transwomen have been ‘diagnosed’ as
suffering from gender dysphoria and received permits from authorities allowing
them to appear in public dressed as women prior to their sex reassignment
surgeries.[130]
Despite legal recognition by the state, these individuals (and others with whom
they associate in public areas, including gay men) are often easily
identifiable by security forces and particularly vulnerable to harassment and
abuse.[131]

A gay male told Human Rights Watch that a member of the basij
stopped him when he was strolling alone in Daneshju Park in Tehran, an area
commonly frequented by the city’s LGBT population. He told Human Rights
Watch that at first the basij questioned him about why he was at the
park, and then after a few minutes he sexually assaulted him: “We were in
a secluded area. That’s when he propositioned me. He grabbed my hand and
put it on his crotch. I rejected him and he gave up.”[132]

Abuse against sexual minorities on Iran’s streets can
range from verbal insults and harassment to beatings, arbitrary arrests, and
even sexual assault. Roundups of individuals hanging out in parks and suspected
of being gay have been reported. Sometimes sexual minorities are taken to
detention facilities run by the basij or police, processed, and forced
to sign a document called a ta’hod (promise), in which they pledge,
for example, not to congregate in specific areas or appear in public wearing
makeup. They are then released, but may be subjected to verbal harassment and
physical assault by the officers. However, most times security forces stop
short of actually arresting or transferring the individuals to formal detention
facilities, but harass or abuse them on the streets.

It is not always easy to determine which security outfit is
responsible for abuse against sexual minorities (and other socially
non-conforming people) on Iran’s streets. In addition to regular police
forces, numerous semi-official and “vigilante” organizations
ostensibly dedicated to enforcing public morality operate in Iran, supported by
the police and judiciary. In 2002, for instance, the Tehran police department
formed sixty special patrols called Special Units, or Yegan-e Vizhe, to
monitor public conduct in the city.[133]
In late 2004, the judiciary began establishing, under its own supervision, a
new group to police moral crimes called the Setad-e Hefazat-e Ejtema’i,
or Social Protection Division. This organization, primarily made up of
unemployed former soldiers, was set up to control “the social ills of
each neighborhood and region” as well as “deviant individuals.”[134]
In July 2005, a senior judicial official in Qom, a city located southwest of
Tehran, told reporters that 210 units of the Social Protection Division
employing 1,970 formally accredited volunteers had been set up throughout that
city. These divisions were tasked with reporting serious moral offenses to the “disciplinary
forces of the Judiciary” for further action to be taken.[135]

LGBT persons interviewed by Human Rights Watch indicated
that most street confrontations were initiated by two regular security forces:
members of Iran’s Islamic militia, the basij, and the national
police force, Niruy-e Entezamiy-e Jomhuriy-e Eslami (NAJA).[136]
Though considered a militia by many analysts, the basij are formally
part of the state’s security apparatus and operate under the guise of
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has direct ties to Iran’s
Supreme Leader. NAJA units most commonly involved in the harassment and abuse
of Iranian LGBT persons are often referred to as the “moral police,”
or niruhay-e mofased-e ejtema’i. Many street encounters involve lebas
shakshi, or plainclothes officers affiliated with the basij or other
security and intelligence forces.

A gay male, Hamid, a 26-year old described his harrowing
encounter in 2007 with several basij members in Tehran:

They asked us if we were boys or girls. They ordered us to
drop our pants so they could see for themselves … I’ll never forget
it. It was dark. We pulled our pants down. Then they told us to get in their
cars so they could take us to the detention facility. We cried and pleaded so
much… [t]hey eventually let us go.[137]

Saba, a 32-year-old gay male from Tehran, was not so lucky.
He told Human Rights Watch that security agents raped him several times
following whatappeared
to be random street stops. He explained an encounter with plainclothes security
forces in Tehran:

I was walking in the streets one day with my friend when
two men in civilian clothing stopped us and asked us for our identity cards. I
was surprised and asked him why he wanted to see my card. He said he was police
and showed me an official-looking government ID. I don’t remember exactly
what was written on the card. I was so scared, I asked what we had done wrong.
He said, “Don’t act stupid. You know and we know what has happened.”
I said, “No, I don’t understand. Please explain!” He said, “We
have been keeping an eye on people like you.” I understood what he meant.[138]

Saba continued:

He told us that we had to go with them and that if we
complied then we would not be harmed. He said, “Come with me I will bring
you back here soon.” I was scared. I thought he was going to kill us. He
kept saying things like “listening to me is in your best interest.”
He hailed a private taxi. My friend and I got in the taxi. The other man, his
colleague, followed our taxi on his motorcycle.

They took us to an empty house. When we arrived [one of
them] said, “This is it. See, I told you you should believe me.”
One guy took my friend to another room and the [other] man raped me. While he
was doing it he kept telling me that if I cooperate with them they will not
make trouble for us. Afterwards they put us back in the car and returned us [to
our initial location]. I could not believe it. I went home, and I was sick. I
had nightmares. I was just walking in the streets doing nothing. It was as if
he did this routinely.

… I can never accept that this happened to me. I
thought they were going to kill us…. How could you just pick someone up
in the streets, take them away, rape them, and then just drop them back off as
if nothing happened?[139]

Several gay men interviewed by Human Rights Watch believed
they were victims of entrapment campaigns by basij designed to lure them
into meeting other “gays” in public. A few spoke of members of the
gay community who they believed were paid informants and had essentially “ratted
them out.” Others described suspicious situations suggesting collusion
between security forces and gay informants or individuals posing as such.
Payam, the 22-year-old gay male from Shiraz, recounted:

One day, as I was walking in the street with my friend Ali,
a boy started to follow us. I thought he was interested and was a bit scared. I
tried not look at him but he came up to us and asked if he could use my mobile
to make a quick call. He caught me off guard so I gave him my mobile. He made a
quick call and went away. After Ali and I parted my mobile rang. I picked up
and realized it was that same boy. He had called his own mobile with my phone.
He introduced himself as Hamid. We started to talk and decided to meet the next
night at the intersection of Molla Sadra. I had Ali come with me to the meeting
place for safety. Ali was in his car across the street from where we had
planned to meet. Hamid showed up but he was with a friend. He said, “We
have an empty house. Do you want to come with us?” I didn’t like
the situation so I said no and got in Ali’s car.

About thirty minutes later he called me again and
apologized. He suggested that we meet in Hakimi Street and said he would be
alone. I agreed. As I approached Hamid I saw that he was with the same friend
again. We started talking and all of a sudden two motorcycles pulled up next to
us. There were five men, two on one motorcycle and three on the other. They
were basij. They kept questioning us, and then lined us up against a
wall and searched us. They told me to get on the bike but let Hamid and his
friend go.[140]

They took Payam to the local basij station, where he
was insulted, interrogated, and threatened. They eventually let him go without
filing charges.

Human Rights Watch has not uncovered evidence suggesting
that abuses perpetrated by Iran’s security forces are part of a
systematic targeting campaign to identify and root out Iran’s sexual
minorities. However, research reveals that harassment, arbitrary arrest, and
abuse perpetrated by security forces against Iran’s sexual minorities on
account of their public appearance are not uncommon. Some of these abuses
ostensibly occur under the pretext of enforcing Iran’s penal code,[141]
while others are carried out by renegade security forces who take the law into
their own hands. These abuses, only a fraction of which have been included in
this report, violate Iran’s international obligations, including Article
9 of the ICCPR prohibiting “arbitrary arrests” and guaranteeing all
citizens the “right to liberty and security of person.”

Human Rights Watch believes that these forces perpetrate
violence against Iran’s sexual minorities in part because they know that their
victims have nowhere to turn for protection or justice.

VI. Government Abuse
Stemming from Invasions of Privacy

Kids had told us about things like this happening in chat
rooms, but what could I do? This was the way I felt. I knew it was
risky—and here I was.

—Farshad, gay Iranian in exile, December 7,
2006

In addition to abuse of sexual minorities in public spaces,
Iranian security forces have harassed, abused, and arrested LGBT persons or
individuals suspected of being LGBT by violating these individuals’
privacy. Human Rights Watch has documented two primary methods employed by
security forces which have led to the arrests of sexual minorities—raids
of private homes where individuals are suspected of engaging in immoral
activity and surveillance of internet sites visited by sexual minorities,
primarily gay men.

Home raids by security forces, which have received much
international attention over the past several years, seem to be part of a
larger crackdown on immoral activity carried out in the private sphere,
including sexual relations outside traditional marriage (of both the
heterosexual and homosexual nature) and consumption or possession of alcohol
and illegal drugs.

Home Raids

Around 10 p.m. on
Saturday, July 10, 2010, uniformed and plainclothes officers raided a private
party in the city of Shiraz, in southwest Iran. At least 17 gay men, their
boyfriends (several of whom did not self-identify as gay and consider
themselves either bisexual or straight), and others were present. The
party-goers were arrested on the spot and transferred to a detention facility
located on Modaress Boulevard. The men first appeared in court on July 15.[142]

The Iranian Queer Organization(IRQO), a Canada-based rights
group dedicated to protecting the rights of Iranian LGBT persons told Human
Rights Watch that the men were initially arrested on suspicion of lavat,
satan worshipping, and alcohol use. Immediately following the arrests, LGBT
persons in Shiraz were fearful that more arrests would follow as a result of
information gathered during the interrogations and believed that information
from the detainees’ email accounts and Yahoo messenger IDs may be used to
target the city’s LGBT community.[143]

According to IRQO, however, authorities detained those
arrested for approximately two weeks and then released them on bail. IRQO
recently informed Human Rights Watch that prosecutors have dropped charges
against the men. Human Rights Watch has not been able to independently confirm
this information.

This recent Shiraz incident is typical of raids conducted by
security forces in which gay and bisexual men, and sometimes transgender
people, are arrested. Human Rights Watch has documented several such raids in recent
years during which dozens of gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight men were
arrested and detained.[144]
It is not always clear whether the raids followed targeted surveillance of
private residences, or whether they were carried out in response to a tip (for
example, from a disapproving neighbor). In at least one case, an individual
said the basij coerced him into informing them about a gay party in
Tehran after he and his friends were caught with alcohol at a checkpoint.
According to the witness, the basij forces promised a lighter sentence
if he provided such information. Kamran describes what happened when they led
the basij to the party:

We went to the party, rang the bell, and went upstairs.
[When the hosts opened the door] they were all shocked to see us with the
authorities. There were about 10 people [at the party], four of whom were
transgender. The basij came in and when they realized what was going on
and who was there they forgot about [the alcohol]. They didn’t even tell
us why they were there. They immediately lined everyone up against the wall and
searched them. They found a condom on someone. Then one of them called for a
backup car and took all of us downstairs. It was a minibus. They took us to a
station on Piruzi Street.[145]

Kamran told Human Rights Watch that none of the individuals
at the party were charged with lavat, but several were charged,
convicted, and sentenced for other moral offenses such as possession and
consumption of alcohol.

Perhaps the most infamous raid on a gay gathering occurred
around 10 p.m. on May 10, 2007, when police and basij unitsraided
a private birthday party in an apartment building in the city of Esfahan. They
arrested 87 persons, including four women and at least eight people who were
accused of wearing the clothes of the opposite sex. The police and basij
agents led those arrested to the street, stripped many to the waist, and beat
them until their backs and faces were bloody. According to several sources who
spoke to Human Rights Watch, several of those arrested suffered broken bones.
The authorities released the four women the next day, along with a child.[146]

Family members were not allowed to see those detained, and
many were denied lawyers. Of those arrested, 24 men were eventually tried for “facilitating
immorality and sexual misconduct,” as well as possessing and drinking
alcohol. In June 2007, a court in Esfahan found all of them guilty of various
combinations of these charges. Most were sentenced to up to 80 lashes and to
fines of 10 million to 50 million riyals (US$1,000-5,000).[147]

The Esfahan party raid appeared to be part of a nationwide
crackdown to enforce dress codes and conduct. After the raid, police
intensified surveillance, harassment, and abuse of individuals connected to the
87 arrested people. Several individuals told Human Rights Watch that they were
detained by police and interrogated to reveal contacts.[148]

Maziar, a 35-year-old gay male from Esfahan, attended the
party and narrowly escaped arrest. He described harassment and surveillance by
police following the arrests:

Two or three days after this incident … I started to
get really suspicious calls on my mobile. [The people who called] would not
identify themselves. They would just say, “We are basij, you have
been identified as a hamjensbaz, and you must come and present yourself
to us.” I would pretend it was someone else and just hang up on them.

… One day two to three weeks before I left Iran I was
at work and they went to my home. I lived with my parents and my family later
told me that they said, “Your son is part of a group of Esfahani hamjensbaz”
and he needs to report to the police station. When I got home I was confronted
by my family. This was about 10 days after the party.[149]

In December 2007 and February 2008, police raided two
private gatherings in Esfahan and arrested at least 46 more people, subjecting
some of them forensic examinations to look for “evidence” that they
had engaged in same-sex conduct. Some remained in jail for weeks without access
to lawyers and without charge.[150]

Hossein M., a 26-year-old gay male from Tehran, recounted
his experience after attending a gay party in that city:

My last arrest was the reason I left Iran. In the winter of
2007 my partner and I went to a gay party in Tehran that was raided by the basij.
We were caught having sex at the party and were taken to a basij base
located in the basement of a building. We were about 15 people. They put us all
in one room. We were held there for four nights and then tried at the Emam
Khomeini courthouse for the crimes of homosexuality and participation in a
corrupt gathering. We were all sentenced to 80 lashes [for the corrupt
gathering charge] and were told to return to court in a month for our sentences
to be carried out.

Some people at the party had taken pictures of us on their
mobiles. The basij had confiscated everyone’s mobiles and had seen
these pictures. I know this because later on they tried to make us confess to
the crime of lavat and said that our final punishment would be
execution, and that they would use the pictures as evidence against us. After
five days in custody I was released on bail. My family put up my grandmother’s
apartment as security. After we were released my partner’s uncle also
told us that the basij had shown him the pictures. The official summons
came on the May 15 and required that we present ourselves to the court on the
30th. My partner and I escaped Iran before our court date. [151]

The police have raided parties in smaller cities as well.
Farzam, a 26-year-old gay male, told Human Rights Watch that Sepah and
plainclothes officers raided a gay birthday party he attended in 2004 along
with 24 other people in Rasht, a city in northern Iran. There was alcohol at
the party. Farzam explained that the Sepah entered by breaking down the
door, accompanied by plainclothes agents. He described how they gathered all
the guests and beat them with batons, broke bottles, and tore the place apart
in search of drugs and incriminating evidence. He said that they transported
the guests to a detention facility and interrogated them until the next
morning. The day after the party, according to Farzam, prison authorities
administered 30 lashes and forced the detainees to take off their shoes and
walk home barefoot.[152]
Farzam told Human Rights Watch that the basis for the corporal punishment was
not immediately clear to him.

Internet Surveillance

In June 2004, according to information provided to Human
Rights Watch, undercover police agents in Shiraz arranged meetings with gay men
through internet chat rooms and arrested them. As part of the crackdown, police
arrested Amir and held him in detention for a week, beating him repeatedly.
Judicial authorities in Shiraz sentenced Amir to 175 lashes, 100 of which were
administered immediately. Amir told Human Rights Watch that he did not know the
crime with which he was charged and was never informed of the reasons for his
conviction. Following his release, security officials subjected Amir to regular
surveillance and arbitrary arrests, he said. Amir told Human Rights Watch that
from July 2005, the date of his release, until he fled the country later in the
year, the police threatened him repeatedly.[153]

News of the 2004 arrests in Shiraz and other major cities
spread on the internet, causing concern among Iran’s LGBT community.
According to some LGBT rights groups outside Iran, security forces regularly
monitored popular internet dating sites for both gay and straight men such as Manjam
in order to lure and entrap unsuspecting gay men.[154]
Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm the methods and capabilities of
the government when it comes to monitoring LGBT sites, nor has it secured
evidence suggesting that Iran’s security forces or judiciary have engaged
in a systematic campaign to target and entrap gay men and other members of
Iran’s LGBT community. Despite this, Human Rights has, over the years, gathered
accounts from several individuals, primarily gay males, alleging that they were
caught through internet entrapment stings.

Ahmad, from Shiraz, is one of several gay males whom
plainclothes officers arrested after allegedly setting up a date through the
internet:

I’d gone into a chat room where I saw an onscreen
message saying “I want an active gay man.” I responded and a few
minutes later I got an instant message. I would normally never have responded
because my family was well-known in Shiraz. But I replied and said I am a gay
man in Shiraz. It was about three or four in afternoon. And he replied to my
message. I asked him what he looked like. He told me so and so and very fast he
sent me web pictures, which was unusual because in Shiraz they don’t
usually send that fast. He asked me what I looked like. I said I’m
lighter, I have green eyes. He was really my type from every point of view. I
really liked him. He said, “When can we see each other? Can we meet at 6
o’clock?” I was very excited.

… We met on a street called Zaqeri Street near a
billboard. He introduced himself as Mohammad. I said I’m Danny. He said, “Where
should we go?” I said, “let’s go toward Chamran Street.”
He said, “No let’s go somewhere more private. Let’s go into a
quieter street around that area.”

… We hadn’t gone but 15 meters when a car
pulled up, and the driver ordered me into his car and called me a bacheh
kuni.[155]
I turned around to Mohammad and looked at him and said, “Do you know this
guy?” He said nothing. The guy in the car got out and pushed me into the
car. Mohammed then came and sat next to me in the back and said, “Do you
want to have sex, [expletive]? I’ll take you with me and have sex with
you in such a horrific way that…” Then he told me to shut up and
keep my head down. I asked him, “What have I done?” He slapped me
hard and I just kept crying. He turned to the driver said, “Between you
and me, he’s not a bad looking guy is he?” I was shaking so
hard—my whole body still shakes when I tell you this story.[156]

Ahmad was eventually charged and convicted of
“inciting immoral behavior” and sentenced to 100 lashes, which were
administered. He told Human Rights Watch that he endured constant verbal and
psychological harassment during his time in custody, both from law enforcement
and judiciary officials.

Amir, also from Shiraz,
told Human Rights Watch that he was chatting with someone in an Iranian gay
chat room in. The person asked him what kind of man he was looking for, and
Amir described his ideal partner. A few minutes later someone logged in who
described himself as having the exact profile Amir sought. Amir asked for a
photo and the man sent one. They communicated with a webcam for a short while
and agreed to meet later that day in a public area. Less than a minute after
they met, someone came up behind Amir, tapped him on the shoulder, handcuffed
and blindfolded him, and shoved him into the back of a waiting car. Amir’s
“date” then exchanged pleasantries with the arresting officer and
walked away.[157]

During the drive to the local detention center, the
arresting officer asked him if “he really missed dick,” Amir
recalled. The officer threatened to take him to an army barracks where he would
be raped. He endured seven days of interrogation and beating at the hands of
police officers. During the interrogation, he was presented with the transcript
of his chat room conversation. The interrogators also told him that they knew
of his prior arrest. Amir describes one of the exchanges he had with an
interrogator:

After seven days of interrogation, Amir returned to the
courthouse where he was sentenced the first time. He told Human Rights Watch
that he did not know what crime the authorities had charged him with. His photo
from the chat room and the transcript were presented as evidence against him.
He was then asked questions by the presiding judge:

Judge: Have you engaged in penetration?

Amir: No, I only made out with other men.

Judge: What does that mean?

Amir: Hugs, kisses.

Judge: You’ve never done penetration either way? I
can send you for a medical exam. If it comes back positive, you will be
charged.[159]

Amir was never convicted of lavat, nor was he
subjected to a physical examination. He told Human Rights Watch he was instead
sentenced to 175 lashes and released after authorities administered the
punishment.

Iraj, another gay male from Shiraz, explained an online
encounter that he believes led to a police search of his home:

I met a guy online … He introduced himself as Ahmad.
He said he really liked me and wanted to meet me on the Yahoo Messenger webcam.
I had always been very careful presenting my face or image online, so I said,
“No, I don’t feel comfortable. Let’s meet in person.”
But before that I said, why don’t you show me who you are?” He
presented himself online through the webcam. He was wearing sunglasses and I
asked, “Why don’t you take off the sunglasses?” But he
wouldn’t. I wasn’t keen to have the meeting take place then, so
instead we just chatted for about a week.

[One day] he said, “I have a computer software store
and you can come by there.” We arranged a meeting for me to come by the
store. I don’t know why but I didn’t feel scared at all. I felt
comfortable. He seemed familiar to me so I didn’t question him. He had
given me a phone number to arrange the meeting before going and I called it
from my house line.

… We arranged it so I would go to his store at 5
p.m.… The store was in a shopping mall in Shiraz called Molasadra,
which is a place where [you can find] all sorts of computer software. I walked
into the pasaj [outdoor mall] and recognized him from a distance based
on the picture he had given me on the webcam. He was standing with two other
men. I thought he was in a meeting so I decided not to disturb him.

I waited 10 or 15 minutes before speaking to him. I was
about to leave when I noticed one of the men was carrying a
walkie-talkie—the way basij carry it—around his waist. Even
the memory of this disturbs me. I got so frightened I returned to my
grandmother’s house.[160]

Iraj continued:

A few hours later I tried to call my sister again and she
picked up this time. She was crying. She said the Ministry of Intelligence had
been to my house and had searched my room.[161]

Human Rights Watch has also gathered evidence of possible
internet entrapment incidents in other large cities such as Esfahan and Tehran.
In March 2008, for example, Esfahan police apparently entrapped several men
over the internet by answering personal advertisements and interrogated them to
reveal the names of friends and contacts. Police found erotic pictures of men
on another man’s mobile phone after arresting him, and a court reportedly
sentenced him to three years in prison.[162]

Mohammad S. recalls how he was caught in 2007 after he met
someone named Arash in a popular Yahoo chat room in Tehran:

We decided to meet one
day in public. He told me: “You decide when it would be the most
appropriate for us to meet. So I looked on my calendar and was looking for a
day off other than the regular Friday night. I wanted it to be a Thursday night
so it would be crowded in the streets. We met on July 26, 2007.

We decided to meet at a shopping mall on Vali Asr Street.
We met in front of the store and we walked a little toward the nearby Daneshju
Park. We walked around for a bit in the park and sat down; he told me a little
more about himself and I told him about myself. After a while he said, “If
you want we can go somewhere less public so we can be closer together.”
So we walked and we found a small street that was relatively deserted. He took
my hand and started to play—touched me, rubbing me.

All of a sudden he grabbed my wrist really tight. I tried
to pull away. “Why are you grabbing me so hard?” I said. He pushed
me in the direction of a white Paykan[163]
that was parked in the street. Two hezbollahis [security agents] with
beards came out of the car.[164]
They looked like basij. They tried to force me into the car and I
resisted, but they finally kicked me in the back of the legs and forced me into
the car.

In the car they kept calling me lavatkar and kuni
and saying that I was an animal for desiring these kinds of things. With the
driver we were five people in the car. Arash got in front. I and the other two
guys were in the back. I realized then that he had tipped them off … I
said, “What are you doing to me? You have no evidence against me!”
Arash reached into his bag and pulled out some photocopies and said,
“These are all my chats with him.”[165]

Authorities detained Mohammad S. at a local police station
for three days before he was tried in front of a judge. He told Human Rights
Watch that police officials subjected him to constant verbal abuse. His
informant, “Arash,” was also present during his trial, which lasted
approximately 30 to 45 minutes. He was forced to sign a ta’hod (a
written declaration promising that he would no longer engage in the
“unlawful” activity in question) promising not to visit gay
internet sites and lashed 100 times before being released. He does not know the
crime with which he was ultimately charged and convicted.[166]

Farshad, a gay male from Esfahan, provided similar testimony
of an incident that occurred in 2004:

[I] used to go to a chat room called Gay Room to
find others like myself. People were there from all different cities. We would
identify ourselves with pictures and webcams, and describe what we looked like
and how tall we were. I arranged a meeting with someone who said he was about
23-years-old. He sounded very attractive from his description.

We arranged to meet in the street. He said he knew of an
empty house so we decided to go there. We had decided to take a taxi when a car
pulled up with two [men] sitting in the front and one in the back. We got in. I
sat in the back between the guy who was already in there and the one I had met.
As soon as the car started to move, two men pulled my head down between the two
seats, blindfolded my eyes, and began beating me. They called me the worst
names—I don’t feel comfortable repeating them.

… It was then that I realized that I’d fallen
into a trap. Kids had told us about things like this happening in chat rooms,
but what could I do? This was the way I felt. I knew it was risky—and
here I was.[167]

Farshad was taken to an unknown location, blindfolded, and
severely beaten. He believes the detention facility was run by the local
police. Authorities informed him that he was lucky that he was not
“caught in the act” and forced him to sign a ta’hod
promising that he would never visit gay chat rooms again. Farshad was released
after about two days in custody.

The ICCPR affirms the right to privacy (article 17),
security (article 9), and freedom of expression (article 19), freedoms that are
routinely and systematically violated by the Iranian government’s efforts
to control and monitor the conduct and speech of Iranians, even in the private
sphere. Home raids and internet surveillance carried out by Iran’s
security forces violate the fundamental rights of all Iranians, not just
Iran’s sexual minorities, under the guise of moral conformity.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the Iranian
government to respect its citizens’ right to privacy in the home, and not
to censor, control, or monitor speech on the internet. Despite these requests,
however, the Iranian government continues to employ its security forces,
including the Revolutionary Guards, to monitor and control private conduct in
violation of Iran’s international obligations.[168]

VII. Ill-Treatment and Abuse by Security Forces
during Detention

Once inside, they put us in a cell and tied aprons around
our waists. Then the two men who had bought us in sexually assaulted us.

—Hossein M., a gay Iranian in exile, October 2, 2006

Security forces have used verbal, psychological, and
physical abuse to harass and intimidate LGBT persons, and to extract from them
confessions and ta’hods. A majority of LGBT individuals
interviewed by Human Rights Watch who had experienced altercations with the
security forces complained of some form of verbal abuse or harassment during
their arrest, transfer, and/or detention. Several detailed abuse severe enough
to constitute torture. This abuse included sexual assault or rape.

Human Rights Watch has gathered testimony indicating that
security forces use physical abuse and torture, including beatings and
whippings, against LGBT persons who are held in their custody. Farshad told
Human Rights Watch that police flogged him in 2004 because he refused to sign a
ta’hod promising that he would not visit gay internet sites
anymore:

I was still blindfolded when they took me into a house. I
later found out it was a sort of school. They took off my blindfold. I saw that
there were about eight to ten people there, including the person I had arranged
to meet [online]. They started to beat me and call me the worst names possible
until they broke my pride. They threatened to kill me and hang me, and then
they beat me.

… A person came … He said, “You’re
very lucky that we didn’t catch you in the act, because if we had we
would have made sure that you received the death sentence.” He placed a
paper in front of me and tried to get a confession out of me. He asked for my
name. The paper indicated that I had been in a chat room, and I had to swear
never do this again.

… I told him I will not sign this. So they laid me
down on a kind of bed and with a watering hose they started to whip me. My
hands were tied to the bed while they were doing this. It was as though smoke
were coming from my back. They were saying the worst things to me. I felt that
my back was bleeding. After about 30 to 40 minutes I decided to sign the piece
of paper. But when they put the paper in front of me I told them I would not do
it. There was no reason for me to sign it. After I said no, they tied me up to
the bed again and resumed whipping me.[169]

After this, the same men took Farshad in a car, blindfolded,
to an area outside the city. They pushed him out of the car. He waited until he
heard the car drive away before taking off the blindfold. He found himself in
the middle of nowhere. It was dark.[170]

Ebrahim, a 22-year-old from Tehran, who was walking with his
boyfriend at Vanak Square in Tehran had a similar experience. He told Human
Rights Watch that he was holding hands with his boyfriend—which is not
necessarily uncommon for straight men—when several police officers
approached him.[171]
His boyfriend was wearing some makeup. Ebrahim told Human Rights Watch:

We are a minority here. It’s obvious that we are gay
and this is the reason they took us in. It’s evident to others and hard
for us to deny it based on the way we act.[172]

Ebrahim asked why they were being stopped and the police
replied that he and his boyfriend had “behavioral issues.” He said
the police loaded them into a van and took them to the local station. Once
there, the authorities wiped the make-up off his boyfriend’s face,
repeatedly slapped the two, and locked them up until the next morning.

Ebrahim told Human Rights Watch that police directed him and
his boyfriend to sign a ta’hod promising that they would never see
each other again and would no longer frequent gay patoqs or hangouts. He
said they were scared into signing the document and did so without reading it.
Neither of them was given a copy. Ebrahim was later told by one of the officers
that in addition to promising not to be seen in public together, the ta’hod
required that they no longer wear improper clothing or makeup.[173]

During its investigations, Human Rights Watch also
interviewed several gay men who provided vivid accounts regarding inappropriate
touching and rape while being detained. Amir, the 22-year-old gay male who was
arrested at a private party in Shiraz, was beaten in custody. He told Human
Rights Watch that during his interrogation in 2003 his interrogators blindfolded
him and shoved a dildo in his mouth, which they had found during the party
raid. One interrogator asked him: “In what position do you have
sex?” They threatened that if he did not answer the question they would
have him examined by a forensic doctor.[174]

In Qom, one of Iran’s most conservative and holy
cities, Hossein M. was stopped by police in 2006 along with his partner
presumably because of their appearance. He describes the humiliation he and his
friend endured when taken to a detention facility:

I was arrested a second time in Qom with my partner. We had
gone to Qom to visit a friend. My partner was wearing a little make-up and had
long hair at the time. We were stopped by two men in civilian clothing. They
were hezbollahi [plainclothes security agents].One of them
said, “You two are hamjensbaz!” We argued and they took us
to the army staff enforcement base in Qom. This is a special base for moral
police whose job is “Enjoining the Good and Prohibiting the
Forbidden.” They are, in fact, a select group of basij,and
they have orders from the judiciary to act against un-Islamic behavior. Once
inside, they put us in a cell and tied aprons around our waists. Then the two
men who had brought us in sexually assaulted us. We were kept there for
twenty-four hours. The next morning they shaved our heads, forced us to sign a
piece of paper, and told us to go back to Tehran and never set foot in Qom
again.[175]

Saba from Tehran recounted his experiences with police
agents in 2001:

[I] was arrested in northern Iran in a small street while
being intimate with my boyfriend. We were in a side alley. We were kissing.
Someone came from behind and grabbed me by my elbow. I got scared. I turned
around and my boyfriend ran away. [The guy] demanded that I come with him and
took me to the [local police station charged with] combating “social
corruption.” He put a blank piece of paper in front of me told me to sign
it. He told me to write: “I am gay and I have sex with men.” I did
everything he said because I was scared.

… He raped me three times on three separate
occasions. He said that he would turn over the paper I had signed to the courts
if I ever told anyone [what had happened] or refused to come back and see him
again … I went home then but went back [out of fear] only to have him
rape me again. He was [a member of the local police force] but wore civilian
clothing.[176]

Farrokh, a 26-year-old gay male, was picked up by two
plainclothes security agents on the streets of Karaj after the June 2009
presidential election. Farrokh and a friend worked for candidate Mehdi Karroubi
in the city of Karaj, about 20 kilometers west of Tehran. They were putting up
posters commemorating the 40th day of the death of Neda Agha Soltan, a
demonstrator killed by sniper fire in the streets of Tehran during
post-election protests.

We were taken to an unknown location [inside a building]. I
was blindfolded. “Who told you to do this? You are monafeqin
[hypocrites],” he said.[177]
Then he asked about my hair and my eyebrows. They separated us. “You are
a lesbian!” I told him I had to be a girl before I could be a lesbian.
They beat me. I told them I was a transsexual, and that in Iran transsexuals
are protected by the law and he was required to protect me. I reminded him that
Khomeini had issued a fatwa protecting transsexuals.[178]

The security agent’s response was to beat Farrokh.
They then told him that they planned on “tak[ing] him somewhere and
find[ing] him a husband.”[179]
They then raped him, Farrokh said.

Navid, a 42-year-old gay male, told Human Rights Watch about
an attack he suffered at the hands of two plainclothes agents whom he later
discovered were members of the local basij. In 2007, Navid was on his
way home from the café that he owned in a small town outside Tehran,
which is a popular spot among young people, when two agents picked him up.
Navid believes he was targeted because of his long hair and appearance. The basij
handcuffed him and escorted him to his house. When they arrived, they pushed
him out of the car, beat him, and forced him inside. Once there, they found a
carton of “immoral” material (CDs and gay images). Then, according
to Navid, they took off his clothes and sexually assaulted him:

[One of them] forced his penis inside my mouth. I threw up
and dirtied myself. They dragged me into the bathroom and washed me down with
cold water. The whole time they continued to beat me all over. Then one of them
found a satellite receiver and told me to say goodbye to my place for at least
six months.[180]

The agents dressed Navid and forced him back into the car.
They drove to another location, which they told Navid was a “guest
residence.” They pulled him out of the car and beat him another time.
There was another basij there who opened the door of the residence as
the other two pushed him in and locked him inside a kitchen. Navid describes
what happened next:

There was a foul-smelling and dirty kitchen full of
cockroaches. [One of the agents] took my clothes off. He then raped me with a
flashlight and a baton. He just pushed me down to the ground and raped me. The
other two joined in.[181]

After they were done, one of the agents handed a confession
letter to Navid and told him to sign it. When Navid asked about the letter,
they told him that it was his execution order. They then beat him more until he
signed the letter, after which they dragged him outside, poured cold water and
dishwashing liquid over his head, and told him to wash himself. After he was
finished washing himself, one of the basij took out a knife and cut his
long hair. “You are responsible for bringing AIDS to [our town]!”
he said. “You open restaurants to poison our children with AIDS!”[182]

Navid said he endured several more hours of physical and
verbal abuse before the agents transferred him to a local police station. He
told Human Rights Watch that when the agents presented local authorities there
with Navid’s confession letter and materials they had confiscated from
his home, they were informed that the forced entry into Navid’s home was
improper and the confession letter was invalid. They prepared a new letter for
Navid and forced him to sign it. Navid told Human Rights Watch that he was
tried for lavat and possession of a satellite receiver and bootleg CDs.
He was eventually acquitted of the lavat charge because the state could
not produce evidence indicating that had engaged in sodomy, and was only
convicted of possessing a satellite receiver and fined.

Matin, a 24-year-old gay male, was arrested by local police
in 2007 after a few eyewitnesses complained to the police that he and his
friends had engaged in sodomy in a public garden outside Esfahan. He told Human
Rights Watch that his friends who were in the garden with him had decided to
coordinate their stories and blame the whole affair on him and another friend.
He denied that he had engaged in sodomy.

Matin described several days of prolonged detention,
beatings, and torture, which he claimed were designed to force him to confess.
Matin also told Human Rights Watch that prison officials raped him several
times during his detention, and that he had suffered serious injury as a
result. His friend, Ehsan (also gay) yielded to the pressure and confessed to lavat.
Matin, however, kept resisting. He describes the initial beating and torture
that took place at the police station:

They suspended us by our legs with handcuffs and hosed us
down with cold water. They did this for five to ten minutes. If we didn’t
answer their questions “properly” they would do it again.
Meanwhile, they repeatedly punched me and struck me with a baton.[183]

Matin says all the others, including Ehsan, were eventually
freed. He told Human Rights Watch that he believed they were well-connected and
were thus able to influence police officials. However, he remained in detention
for another two to three weeks. He explained the despair he felt during this
time:

I couldn’t take it anymore. I attempted suicide. I
fashioned a noose with my undershirt. But they saw everything through the
camera [that was in my cell]. They came in, cuffed me, and tied me up again.
They said, “You think you can get off this easily?[184]

Matin finally buckled under the pressure and agreed to
confess. Still blindfolded, Matin was told what to write by the interrogator,
who placed blame on Matin and his friend Ehsan for engaging in sodomy. After
confessing to the crime, Matin was sent to the Dastegerd, the central prison in
Esfahan.

He told Human Rights
Watch that prison authorities would not accept him at first because he was in
poor physical shape due to the extensive beatings and torture he received at
the police detention facility. [185] Eventually, however, he was
registered there and sent to the juvenile ward, where he spent two months and
was forced to attend moral education classes. But his troubles had not ended.
Matin says that prison guards raped him repeatedly, on several different
occasions. He began to suffer from rectal bleeding, but felt he could not tell
anyone. He told Human Rights Watch that he was sure he would eventually be
killed in prison.[186]

Authorities eventually released Matin on bail in 2008. He
fled to Turkey before his trial convened.

Ill-treatment and abuse perpetrated by Iranian security
forces against detainees, including Iran’s sexual minorities, violate
articles 7 and 10 of the ICCPR. Although Iran is not a party to the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(Convention Against Torture), the prohibition of torture is deeply rooted in
customary international law. Torture, which includes sexual assault or rape, is
also prohibited under Iranian law.[187]

VIII. Abuses during
Administration of Justice

The trial lasted between 30 to 45 minutes. The judge spoke
the whole time. That was it.

—Mohammad S, a gay Iranian in exile, 2007

Several individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch
described their experiences before judges, either during the investigation
phase of their cases or during their trials. Their accounts highlight the broad
discretionary powers given to judges by law, which allows convictions based on “knowledge
of the judge.” Equally problematic are provisions relying on confessions
extracted from the accused as proof of guilt. Torturing prisoners to extract
confessions is not uncommon in Iran, where forced confessions are often
accepted as evidence in criminal trials, despite a constitutional provision
specifically banning it.

Armed with wide powers
and entrenched notions and attitudes towards Iran’s sexual minorities,
prosecutors and judges feel little compunction about intimidating or pressuring
individuals accused of homosexual conduct or other “immoral”
activity into confessing to their crimes. Investigations, interrogations, and
trials are often short sessions conducted without a lawyer, where the accused
is presented with “evidence” of his guilt and ordered to confess.
There is little, if any, opportunity for the accused to present his or her side
of the story.

Mohammad T., who was arrested in 2007 after an alleged
internet entrapment scheme, describes his trial and punishment this way:

I never saw charge documents. [I never saw documents] other
than photocopies of chats and the ta’hod [guarantee] I had to
sign. In court, the judge and the basij guards called me hamjensbaz and
insulted me … Arash, the guy who had ratted me out, was also there. The judge
asked me: “Why do you do this?” I told him I didn’t
know—it was the way I felt. I wanted to be with someone similar to me.
Then he asked, “You know that in Islam that’s a sin, right?”…
The trial lasted between 30 to 45 minutes. The judge spoke the whole time. That
was it.

Then they took me somewhere so I could receive my lashes
… They took me to a separate room. Inside was a bench, like the ones you
find in parks. They tied my hands to the metal on the bench and hit me with a
long stick that was made out of plastic. One person struck me 100 times …
After the lashing, he said, “That’s it, you’re free.”
My body was in such pain. It was full of scabs that bled for several days. They
didn’t even give me any bandages. They just told me to put on my shirt and
go home. It took two months for the wounds to heal completely.[188]

Ahmad talked to Human Rights Watch about the execution
threats he received from the judge who had no proof that he had committed lavat.
The judge instead sentenced him to a lashing after berating him during the
trial, which took place in 2004:

The judge [turned to us]
and said, “I should have you guys stoned to death! I should have you
killed! You know there is a death sentence here for people like you?” We
were pleading and crying. Finally, he said, “The next time I catch you
guys, I will have you put to death.” Instead, he gave us a sentence of
100 lashes. When he announced the sentence we started to cry. He yelled at us:
“Stop your crying and sniveling—I should have been much harsher on
you!”

They took us back to jail and gave us the lashings. I was
bleeding so much. It was extremely painful. I couldn’t sleep on my back
for month.[189]

Amir is a 22-year-old gay male who was arrested at a private
party in Shiraz in 2003.[190]
He was tried in a court in Shiraz along with several other men. Amir provided
vivid details to Human Rights Watch regarding his trial following the party
raid. He told Human Rights Watch that during the mens’ first visit to the
judge’s chambers, the judge criticized the men: “You’re all
like women talking at the same time. Get out!”[191]

During Amir’s second court visit, the judge asked him
the same set of questions as his interrogator. He read a question from the
interrogation report and then read Amir’s alleged response. He then
asked, “So that’s your answer?” He did not give Amir an
opportunity to correct the answers he had given, under torture, during his
interrogation. The hearing ended without Amir having an opportunity to
represent himself:

Judge: Did you know that your sentence could be death?

Amir: Why? What have I done?

Judge: Because you acted against the law of God and nature.
Don’t you know that sex is what men and women do together? Get his mother
to arrange a siqeh with a girl so that he can be cured.[192]
Why doesn’t she take him to a doctor?”[193]

According to a copy of the judge’s ruling provided by
Amir, there were six defendants in the case. The main defendant, who organized
the party, was charged with “production and possession of indecent and
obscene CDs, video tapes, and audio tapes”; “purchase and
possession of alcoholic beverages and gambling paraphernalia (playing
cards)”; “purchase and possession of a satellite receiver,”;
“organizing a corrupt gathering and encouraging youth to engage in
corrupt and obscene acts”; and “offending the public
chastity.” The others, including Amir, were only charged with consumption
of alcohol and participation in a corrupt gathering. In the end, Amir was fined
the equivalent of US$125.[194]

Several witnesses recounted the arbitrariness of the
sentences they received for their “crimes.” Hossein M., a
26-year-old gay male who was arrested and expelled from university after
authorities found gay pornography on his computer told Human Rights Watch:

Soon after this incident I received a court summons at my
home address. I went to court. The judge asked, “Is this your laptop?”
I said, “Yes.” He asked, “How many buttons do you have on
your shirt?” I said, “Four buttons, sir.” He said, “Four
months in jail and 120 lashes.”[195]

Human Rights Watch also gathered testimony suggesting that
allegations of torture submitted by defendants are routinely dismissed by
judges, contributing to a culture of impunity that encourages the use of such
tactics to secure confessions. For example, after suffering torture and sexual
assault by local basij agents in a small town outside of Tehran, Navid
was summoned to court to face criminal charges including lavat. Navid
told Human Rights Watch that the judge asked the prosecutor to identify the
second person involved in the act of sodomy. When the government failed to
produce a co-defendant, the judge threw out the sodomy charge and simply fined
Navid for possessing a satellite receiver and bootleg CDs. When Navid attempted
to show the judge the extensive wound marks on his body, the judge refused to
look and ended the proceedings.[196]

But Navid was determined to pursue the case and filed a
complaint against the basij agents responsible for torturing and raping
him. He eventually succeeded in receiving a letter from the prosecutor’s
office referring him to a forensic doctor who could examine his injuries. On
August 22, 2007, Navid visited a forensic doctor. After a thorough physical
inspection, the doctor told him that he could not conclude that the damage to
his rectum was caused by rape, and that the bleeding was instead likely the
result of hemorrhoids.

Prosecutors pursuing the criminal case against the two basij
were able to identify them and a judge summoned them to the prosecutor’s
office.[197]
However, Navid told Human Rights Watch that the basij agents were never
convicted of any crimes because prosecutors eventually dropped the case.
Several months after filing the complaint against the basij, both he and
his sister began receiving threats from local basij whom Navid believes
were sent to intimidate him. He fled the country in September 2008.[198]

Matin also informed Human Rights Watch about the
judiciary’s failure to investigate serious abuses committed by security
forces against him in 2007. During his detention and repeated torture, Matin,
who had been charged with lavat, was taken before a judge in the
prosecutor’s office several times. The judge summarily dismissed his
complaints about the harsh treatment received at the hands of security forces,
including torture and rape, and reprimanded him:

Next day I went to the prosecutor’s office. The
prosecutor shook his head at me. I told him that I was being abused in prison.
He cursed at me and said, “Now that you’ve been caught you want to
file a complaint against us?” He ordered the authorities to take me away
and get a confession out of me.

… I went to the prosecutor’s office again. The
prosecutor yelled at me again and asked me if I would confess. I denied
everything and told him that the confession they’d gotten from me was
secured through torture. I told him I had not committed lavat. He
threatened me and said you’ll rot in prison.[199]

Matin said the prosecutor eventually changed his tone with
him and tried to coax him into admitting his mistakes and moving on. He put
another confession letter in front of him and told him to sign it. Matin told
Human Rights Watch that he thought the judge could help him, so he signed the
paper and accepted the sodomy charge. As soon as he did, the judge sent him
back to prison.

Matin was eventually freed from prison after his family
posted bail and fled the country prior to his trial.[200]

Article 14 of the ICCPR, to
which Iran is a signatory, guarantees everyone “a fair and public hearing
by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal.” It also provides
that the accused shall “have adequate time and facilities for the
preparation of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own
choosing.” Yet for more than 15 years, Human Rights Watch has documented
routine and systematic violations of due process and fair hearing rights by the
Iranian government against its own people. Authorities
routinely prevent the accused from meeting with their lawyers, rendering them
vulnerable to harassment, abuse, and torture for the purposes of extracting
coerced confessions. Trials are rarely conducted in public, judges often rely
on forced confessions to convict and sentence the accused, and there is little
opportunity for the accused to defend themselves.[201]

Human Rights Watch’s investigations into the
administration of justice against sexual minorities, particularly those accused
of committing same-sex crimes, reveal similar abuses. Research suggests that
the vast majority of sexual minorities who are detained are not actually
charged and prosecuted. Those who are charged are usually not prosecuted under
the sodomy laws, but for “lesser” same-sex acts or violations of
public morality or chastity. The accused are often not allowed access to
lawyers,[202]
it is not uncommon for confessions to be secured under psychological or
physical pressure,[203]
trials are extremely short, and corporal punishment is usually administered
quickly.

In cases where individuals are prosecuted for sodomy, such
as the cases of Ebrahim Hamidi , Mohsen G., and others, Iran’s judiciary
often relies on confessions or Article 120 of the penal code allowing
convictions based on the “knowledge” of the judge.[204]
As previously discussed, Article 120 of the Iranian Penal Code allows a Shari’a
judge to reach a verdict on sodomy based on his knowledge as “derived
through customary methods,” which in practice enables judges to rely on
tenuous circumstantial evidence to determine whether a crime has occurred.
Convictions based on confessions secured through torture or questionable
evidentiary findings per Article 120 of the penal code violate the
defendant’s due process rights.

IX. Lesbian and Bisexual Women

I am a lesbian. And I would like to live according to my
own will.

—Maryam, an Iranian lesbian in exile, April 5, 2010

For lesbians and bisexual women in Iran, family and social
controls may be the greatest threat to their safety and well-being.

Research conducted by Human Rights Watch suggests that
family members pressure Iranian lesbians to conform to acceptable societal
norms and repress their sexual orientation in a myriad of ways. For lesbians,
in particular, the fear of discovery is well-founded. Societal as well as
official scrutiny of “deviant” behavior among non-conforming women is
widespread in Iran, and it is exacerbated by the fact that women have less
freedom to move than their male counterparts. It is not uncommon for lesbians to
report familial violence, forced marriages, and forced medical treatment. Some
of these pressures and abuses are discussed in section four of this report.

Pressures to Marry

As part of routine family and societal pressures on Iranian
women, some lesbians are forced into marriage. The pressures to socially
conform, especially in smaller cities and towns throughout the country, are
felt by all women regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet the
emotional and psychological consequences for lesbian women can be devastating.
This is especially true given that under Iran’s penal code marital rape
does not exist.[205]

Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of Iranians who
self-identified as lesbian, bisexual, or WSW. Several told Human Rights Watch
that their families forced them to marry men after discovering they were lesbians.
If they had refused, their parents would have disowned them and they would have
had no means to support themselves. They lived in fear that their husbands
would discover their sexual orientation and become abusive, or publicly “out”
them in a shameful divorce.

Shadi, 23-year-old lesbian, had this to say about the
problem:

I have so many friends who are forced to live a double
life. They are forced to get married and secretly have girlfriends. There are a
lot bisexual women in Iran who are actually lesbians, but they have to be
bisexual in order to survive. They have sex with men in order to get by. I have
older friends who say, “I wish I knew 20 years ago the things you know
now. I have been living with my husband as a roommate.” In Iranian
culture divorce is still taboo. Many people think that a divorcee is a whore
… There are many who are worse off than me. I was in a position to get a
divorce, but many lesbian women who are forced into marriage have no way out.[206]

She continued:

My family held me in a
room and forced me to accept marriage with a man they knew. They threatened not
to pay for my education if I did not accept. They thought they could
“fix” me. When I had sex with him I became extremely depressed. I
just stopped having sex with him [after a while]. It reached a point where I
would rather die than have sex with him. After a while I met my girlfriend
Darya on the internet…. My husband grew suspicious and hacked into my
computer without my knowledge. He read all our emails and recorded our phone
conversations. He threatened to tell my family and the police if I did not pay
him off. [My girlfriend and I] were living in constant fear. He made our lives
hell. It went on like this for a while until I confessed to my family. I said
to them, “You can do whatever you want with me—kill me—but I
cannot go on like this.” They were eventually supportive and I was able
to get a divorce after paying my husband a lot of money and giving him alimony.

I moved in with Darya but he continued to terrorize us. He
constantly threatened to go to the police with the documents that he had
against us. He even threatened to kill Darya. We paid him a large amount of
money and he went away for a while, but he came back.[207]

Several lesbians who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that
many married women in Iran who had relationships with women on the side did not
self-identify as lesbians but thought of themselves as bisexuals. A lesbian
from Tehran told Human Rights Watch:

I know a lot of lesbians who have been pressured into
getting married. It’s very sad … The family is the major problem
for us, especially for those who are forced to get married. [Your] family finds
out that [you are] a lesbian and they think if they force [you] to get married
that [everything] will change. Ninety-nine percent of the time the result is
divorce. It’s much worse when there is a baby. Some women just decide to
keep their lesbian life hidden. They have both girlfriends and husbands. But it’s
challenging for everyone involved—the girlfriend and the husband. They
don’t leave the lesbian community; they just participate in it in a
different way.[208]

Maryam, a 30-year-old lesbian from Tehran, told Human Rights
Watch:

My family forced me into an arranged marriage [in 2004],
and I was only able to get a divorce after four years and a lot of
problems—both physical and emotional pain. In spite of this they wanted
to force me into marriage again after my divorce. One of my brothers-in-law
worked for the security or intelligence services. He tried to rape me several
times, but I did not dare say anything especially because I was having problems
with my family, who were frantically trying to marry me off again. I had no way
out. If I refused he would beat me. Because of this I ran away from home.

… Around the same time my brother-in-law hacked into
my computer and discovered that I am a lesbian. He began threatening me in
order to protect his family’s reputation. With the kind of work that my
brother-in-law was involved in, I know that they could have found me anywhere
in Iran. They had even discovered the phone numbers of my lesbian friends via
my mobile phone and had threatened each and every one of them. And I knew that
my father, because of his so-called principles and patriarchal beliefs, would
surely kill me.

It had been two weeks since I left my house and I was on
the run. Two days before leaving Iran, I was at a friend’s house when my
phone rang.

This same friend who I was staying with, Roodabeh, was on
the line crying. In a shaky voice full of anxiety she said that my father and
brother-in-law had just been to her house, that they were yelling, and that
they had shamed her and even slapped her across the face. They did not go
inside the apartment, but yelled hamjensbaz in the apartment complex and
threatened her. They said we will set Maryam and her hamjensbaz friends
on fire.

I was shaking from shame and fear because I was responsible
for causing this trouble.[209]

Lesbian and Bisexual Women in Public Space

A large number of Iranian lesbian and bisexual women
interviewed for this report indicated that the internet was an important part
of their daily lives, especially in light of the social limitations imposed on
them by their families and outsiders. Perhaps even more so than for gay males,
internet chat rooms and social websites are a critical medium or public space
for Iran’s lesbian and bisexual women. Shadi, 23-year-old lesbian, told
Human Rights Watch:

The internet creates a space for them to receive and
exchange information. It has allowed them to understand that they have rights
in the face of prejudices and restrictions. However, many of them still see
their relations as only physical and cannot come to terms with the emotional
aspects of it. They only have private relations and would not consider making
their relations public as normal people do. This ultimately makes them feel
small and unhappy. Many others get pressured into marriage. They would accept
to do so to be normal. I know a lesbian now who is married to a gay man in
Iran. They can have their lives and be free from social pressure. Normal means
that one gets married and has children. These people have negative perceptions
of themselves. Emotionally, they are damaged.[210]

Roodabeh, a 32-year-old lesbian told Human Rights Watch
about the important role the internet played in facilitating self-discovery:

I began to identify as a lesbian very late in life, probably
around two or three years ago. But I always knew what I wanted. There was a
vacuum for lesbians in Iran when it comes to information and awareness. Around
2007 the website Hamjenseman appeared. This really helped us out. Gay
men had Maha, Cheraq and Manjam. They were a lot more
plugged in than we were. But there were no sites for us lesbians. We had to
fight to create space for ourselves and use the word “lesbian” [in
the Persian blogosphere].

Then I was introduced to the online magazine Hamjenseman.
This opened the door for me. I met other groups of lesbians online, and we
began to use the internet more frequently. I realized that I was no longer
alone.[211]

The social stigma of same-sex conduct increases the
vulnerability of lesbian women to blackmail, including physical and sexual
assault. Shabnam, a lesbian in her thirties, reported to Human Rights Watch
that she received phone calls from an anonymous man demanding that she have sex
with him, or else he would report her as a lesbian to the basij. She
also reported that her ex-husband blackmailed her for several years, using
evidence of her relationship with another woman against her.[212]

Though less common, Human Rights Watch also interviewed lesbians
who had dangerous encounters because they were caught in compromising
situations, or because they chose to speak out more publicly about their lives.
Hengameh, a 35-year-old lesbian from Tehran, told Human Rights Watch that an
intimate encounter with a girl she’d known for some time eventually
forced her to leave the country. Hengameh said that the witnesses called the
police on her, and that her “friend” eventually laid the whole
thing on her.[213]

Saye Sky, a 20-year-old lesbian rapper from Tehran, told
Human Rights about several incidents where she and her lesbian friends were
detained by the police simply because of the way they looked. Saye also told
Human Rights Watch that she was forced out of university in 2007 because she
and her girlfriend were caught kissing each other in the university hall. She
said that her family eventually found out that she was attracted to women, but
they refused to accept it. They sent her to a psychiatrist.

In late October, however, she was forced to leave Iran for
Turkey. She believes that security agents began surveillance of her telephone
calls after she conducted several anonymous interviews with LGBT-related media
outlets regarding her rap music and life as a lesbian in Iran.[214]

X. Transgender and Transsexual Iranians

I wanted to live a good, moral life. But it was a dream. I
realized how difficult it was to sustain. I couldn’t fight the fight

—Afsaneh, a transgender Iranian in exile, April 11,
2010

Iran is a highly gendered society where individuals must act
according to the conventional norms associated with their biological sex.
Iranian law reflects these values and punishes behavior that is inconsistent
with them.[215]
In cases where someone is intersex (or possesses biological features of both
men and women), the state encourages the individual to choose between the two
and undergo sex reassignment surgery (SRS). Iran is, somewhat unique, however,
in that it also allows such surgeries for transgender individuals.

Sex Reassignment Surgery

Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Iranian
government had never officially addressed the issue of transgender persons. After
1979, the government of the new Islamic Republic classified transsexuals and
tranvestites with gays and lesbians, whose conduct was criminalized. They faced
corporal punishment (i.e. lashing) and possibly death under Iran’s
anti-sodomy laws if they were deemed to be transgender. The situation changed
in 1987, however, when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious
edict, to Maryam Khatoon Molkara, granting her permission to live as a woman
and undergo male to female sex reassignment surgery (SRS).[216]She underwent surgery
in 1997.

While some Muslim majority countries allow SRS for intersex
individuals, Iran also allows SRS for what psychiatrists and clinicians have
termed “gender dysphoria” or “gender identity disorder.”[217]
By 2008 Iran was carrying out more sex change operations than any other nation
in the world except for Thailand.[218]

Once an individual is diagnosed by a medical professional as
suffering from “gender dysphoria” and agrees to undergo SRS, they
may secure permits from local authorities allowing them to appear in public
dressed as women prior to the actual surgery.[219]
Without this permit, however, individuals dressing like members of the opposite
sex will be considered transvestites and in violation of the law. In the 2008
documentary exploring the lives of transgender Iranians, Be Like Others,
a religiously conservative journalist addresses a transgender Iranian at a
clinic:

You people bring this on yourselves. When you are still a
boy and you haven’t had the operation to become a girl, the law, religion,
and custom does not allow you to dress as a girl. Once you’re given the
official permit to have the operation, put it in your pocket, and when the
police stop you show it and no one will bother you.” She continues:
“If you want to continue to dress like a girl but keep your male body,
you are not a transsexual. You are a transvestite. You may even be suspected of
being a homosexual. Make up your mind—either you want to be a girl or a
boy.[220]

Once a transgender individual has undergone SRS in Iran that
person legally becomes the ‘new’ sex—male, in the case of
transmen, and female, in the case of transwomen. All legal documents, such as
birth certificates and passports, are also changed accordingly. After
completing their transition, however, many transgender Iranians are advised to
maintain discretion about their past. This is because of the negative stigma associated
with being transgender and underoing SRS in mainstream Iranian society.

Saba, a gay male who had spent time with a lot of
transgender Iranians in patoqs in Tehran, said this about the reality of
life for transgender Iranians:

They do not even accept something that by law is allowed.
The problem is not only with the lack of legal protection but with family and
culture. Even if Iranian law allows transsexuality, this clashes with Iranian
cultural views. Gays get the death penalty. Trans Iranians may be legal, but
they are treated horribly. They can often not find work and society does not
accept them.

Everyone thinks that just because it is legal to get a sex
change in Iran that trans have no problems. They are wrong. They do not issue
legal paper to all trans people anyway, and even if you have this legal paper
who is going to pay for surgery? And there are few who are actually able to
have surgery and get married, work, and be active citizens in society.[221]

Hojatoleslam Kariminia, a mid-level cleric who is in favor
of transsexual rights and wrote his doctoral thesis on the implications of SRS for
Islamic law, has stated that “ the right of transsexuals to change their
gender is a human right,” and that he is attempting to “introduce
transsexuals to the people through [his] work and in fact remove the stigma or
the insults that sometimes attach to these people.” Kariminia explains
the importance of SRS and the difference between transgender Iranians and
homosexuals:

Islam has a cure for people suffering from this problem. If
they want to change their gender, the path is open. The same is true for those
with two genders. They need surgery. They are allowed, via a sex operation, to
become either male or female. This issue is fundamentally different from that
regarding homosexuals. They’re absolutely not related. Homosexuals are
doing something unnatural and against religion. [222]

Despite the availability
of options for transgender Iranians wishing to undergo SRS, Human Rights Watch
and other rights groups have expressed serious concern that the state is
actively encouraging individuals to undergo SRS even for individuals who are
not transgender and who may not wish to change their gender via an operation.
Human rights groups believe that the Iranian government’s promotion of SRS,
coupled with the fact that same-sex conduct is criminalized in Iran, creates a
powerful incentive for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender Iranians who
do not wish to undergo surgery, to become, in effect, “legal.”

During the course of its investigations, Human Rights Watch
spoke to several LGBT persons, including gay males, who were advised to undergo
SRS. Payam S., a gay male, explains how his psychiatrist tried to convince him
to undergo SRS:

I went to a psychiatrist on my own who helped me. At first
she said you are a trans person and you can easily change. I told her I am a
man and I will not change. I like men but I want to be with men as a man not as
a woman. I have no problems with my manhood. I knew I would never do this.
Despite this, she never used the word “gay.” She just called me a “weak
trans.”[223]

According to Atrina, a 27-year-old transwoman, many
transgender Iranians who are desperate to have SRS are taken advantage of. She
told Human Rights Watch:

There are some doctors who take advantage of friends who do
not have the money to pay for surgery. These doctors do not care whether
patients really know whether they want to or should change their sex, whether the
surgery is carried out properly, or what the possible complications are. There
are doctors who are able to lower the price for surgery but instead keep
raising the prices and sell themselves under false pretenses. Trans patients
are like steps that these doctors use to climb to profits.[224]

Despite the “accommodations” afforded transgender
Iranians, Human Rights Watch found that a very high percentage of transgender
interviewees had experienced trauma as a result of various factors, including
rejection from their families, inability to hold steady employment, and
gender-based violence. A significant number of transgender Iranians,
particularly transowomen, had resorted to siqehs, or “temporary
marriages,” in order to make a living. Several told Human Rights Watch
that despite the legal recognition provided to transsexuals in Iran, their
lives were worse off than other sexual minorities because they felt completely
abandoned by both their families and the state.

Hooliya, a 25-year-old transwoman from Tehran, echoed many
of these sentiments:

In Iran being a
transsexual means having no place, no identity, and being treated like a whore.
Even if one has had a sex change it’s the same. People in Iran just
don’t accept you. They don’t understand these things. Even with a
sex change people continue to treat you badly and with disrespect. It is very
difficult for gay men and transsexuals like myself. We have problems everywhere
we go—in the family, in our neighborhoods, and in society. People think
we are like lepers. In Iran it is not like how it is in Europe or America.
There is no information about these things. No cultural or social sources of
information to help people to understand that we are not abnormal. We cannot
openly talk about these things with our families and friends.[225]

Research suggests that
transgender/transsexual Iranians, particularly transwomen, are more likely be
targeted and victimized by security forces because they are more easily
recognizable. Atrina, a transwomen, described an altercation she had with the
police on the street:

I showed the police my legal and medical documents, which say
that I am a trans. They just called me kuni evakhahar [226]and a dirty
faggot. They told me I spread sickness and infect people. Then they threw the documents
in my face and laughed at me.

At the station they made us stand and would not allow us to
sit down. The worst was that they would stand in our faces, put their hands on
their penises, and laugh at us. They would touch their crotch and say, “Is
this what you really like?” For me this was torture.[227]

Hooliya recounted another incident:

One time I was walking in a park and two park officials
came up to me and harassed me about my appearance. They made me go with them to
a small room in the park. They searched me and then raped me. It was so
horrible. I was crying and I kept saying that I would complain to the police.
When they were finished with me, they forced me to leave the room with them.
Once we got outside they turned me over to the police.

I told them what the two park officials had done to me.
They became very angry and said, “How dare you insult our colleagues! Why
do you say things that are not true? They arrested me for insulting their
colleagues and took me to the station. I was charged with the crime of intent
to increase moral corruption. They kept saying, “We will teach you never
to repeat such lies!”

I was in a damp and smelly jail cell for five days in
solitary confinement. I was not allowed to complain. I felt like a dead person.
It is very difficult for me to talk about it.[228]

Afsaneh’s Story

Afsaneh, a 42-year-old transwoman, described the
difficulties of living as a transgender and transsexual in Iran. She had SRS
and legally changed her identity and began to look for a job. She told Human
Rights Watch that she went to several places to work, but found it extremely
difficult to hold down a job. Her coworkers asked her boss to let her go from
the first job despite the fact that she was legally recognized as a women by
the state. [229]

Afsaneh told her next boss the truth. He proposed to her.
She was in no position to get married, but felt obliged to carry on a sexual
relationship with him for a while until she could no longer take it. Money
became tight, and several of her friends suggested that she consider other ways
to make ends meet: “I went down a path I shouldn’t have gone. I
completely changed. I got rid of my maqniyeh[230]
put on a rusari,[231]
and colored my hair.”

She continued:

About a year later I met a rich man who wanted to siqeh
me. He was about 60 years-old, and I was about 23 or 24. I was at a party with two
other transwomen and three women. He started talking to me and asked why
I’d decided to go down this path. “Nowadays people don’t ask
us these types of questions,” I explained. “It’s a shame you
decided to take this path,” he said, “what do you want to do with
your life?”

Afsaneh continued:

He eventually got me a very nice place close to his own
home. I was there for about a year and a half. He even got me a car. He would
come over at certain times and then go to work. We had completely separate
lives. I never asked him questions about his other life. Then one day his wife
found out and came over to my place. I allowed her in. As soon as she sat down
she said, “My dear, do you know that Haj Agha is married?” I said
yes. She asked me how long I’d been with him. I answered. She told me
that she had hired a private investigator to follow him around and found out
about me around two weeks ago. She had become suspicious. “Do you know I
have kids your age?” she asked me.

Afsaneh said that at some point the wife became very angry
and violent. But Afsaneh kept her calm and cooperated, so she eventually calmed
down. She asked Afsaneh if she was Haj Agha’s wife and Afsaneh replied
that she was only a temporary wife. Then Afsaneh revealed her secret. The wife
made Afsaneh promise to annul the siqeh. She had no choice but to
comply.

Afsaneh told Human Rights Watch that after this incident,
she went back to her old ways and entered into numerous siqehs with
several other men, some of whom she suspects were members of Iran’s
security forces. During this time she experienced many humiliations, lost
several of her transwomen friends to suicide and murder, and endured several
attacks, including having acid thrown at her by three plainclothes policemen.
She was also arrested several times, imprisoned, and punished with lashes for
solicitation. She described one of these incidents to Human Rights Watch:

Another time they caught
me with a boyfriend of mine. We were taken to Vozara.[232] One of the men who worked there took me upstairs.
He asked if I was open or not.[233]
I answered no. Then he said: “They open you so you would become a woman,
not a prostitute. Now that you’ve decided go down this path, put a chador
on. I want to do something with you. Pretend I’m your husband. Take my
clothes off.” I asked him why he wanted me to do this … “I
want to see how much of a woman you really are.” I had no choice but to
oblige.

Around 1999, Afsaneh was finally able to gather around
$10,000 to complete the final phase of her SRS. She went to Thailand for the
operation. After returning from her trip she then met someone with whom she
fell in love. She decided to sever all ties with her former life and try
married life. “I was tired of being alone,” she told Human Rights
Watch.

Afsaneh was honest with her husband about who she was from
the beginning, and according to her he accepted her for who she was. They spent
more than four years together.

I told my husband that he was like a father and a brother
to me. I never had these things. I could finally go out in public with my head
held high. I had a husband. I had finally discovered who I was. I had received
my “new” identification papers years ago, but now I realized that
they were just papers—they were meaningless.

Afsaneh said that after her marriage her mother-in-law
started to become really close to her and began to confide that she wanted
grandchildren. She and her husband told her mother-in-law that she could not
get pregnant, but her mother-in-law kept trying to convince her to try taking
medications or go to the doctor. Afsaneh said after a while the pressure of
pretending became too much. Her husband was willing to continue pretending, but
she chose to put an end to the charade.

Afsaneh and her husband finally decided to separate around
the spring of 2008. Afsaneh said that after her marriage failed she felt she
had tried everything. She gave up her rights to her share of the matrimonial
property and left Iran for good.

I wanted to live a good, moral life. But it was a dream. I
realized how difficult it was to sustain. I couldn’t fight the fight.[234]

Of special importance will be women’s human rights
groups and those who are active on issues of sexuality, especially sexual
orientation and reproductive rights. These groups are often very vulnerable to
prejudice, to marginalization and to public repudiation, not only by State
forces but by other social actors

— Report of the
Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, July
3, 2001

In Iran, any attempt to openly gather, organize, or
disseminate information contrary to the government’s mainstream views
regarding gender identity and sexual orientation may be viewed as political
propaganda and a threat to national security. This phenomenon is not limited to
Iran. Human rights defenders working on issues affecting sexual minorities,
particularly in the Middle East, are often discredited and accused by
governments of being foreign agents. They risk being targeted by security
forces and prosecuted under national security-related crimes. It is not
surprising, therefore, that rights groups in Iran and LGBT Iranians themselves
tend not to address rights deprivations affecting sexual minorities.

Despite the great risks involved, however, there are human
rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, students, and artists who have chosen
to address the rights (and deprivation of rights) of sexual minorities. There
are no LGBT rights organizations formally registered in the country, but starting
in the early 2000s, during the period of reform under former president Mohammad
Khatami, several rights activists began addressing issues affecting sexual
minorities and started assuming a more vocal profile, especially over the
internet and the blogosphere.

But by 2005, Iran’s short-lived “Tehran Spring”—or
period of political reforms— was over. Individuals, including human
rights defenders working on issues affecting sexual minorities, began to feel
the weight of the state as government authorities initiated a new crackdown on
Iranian civil society. Some were forced into exile, while others resumed their
underground activities even more cautiously than before. Today, the vast
majority of work in this area is done underground or over the internet for
security reasons.[235]

Yet government authorities still have shown a willingness to
use harsh tactics to silence those who seek to publicize discrimination and
violence against Iran’s sexual minorities in the country. In addition to
local police units, rights defenders and others who wish to organize, educate,
or draw attention to the situation of sexual minorities in Iran run the risk of
being targeted by intelligence officers from the Ministry of Intelligence or
the Revolutionary Guards, charged under the country’s harsh national
security laws, and prosecuted for political crimes in Iran’s
revolutionary courts.[236]
The dangers may be even greater for rights defenders who self-identify as
members of Iran’s LGBT community.

A recent example of the dangers involved in addressing
rights issues affecting sexual minorities in Iran is illustrative. On May 17,
2009—International Day Against Homophobia—a group calling itself
Homosexual Students of Universities in Iran (HSUI) issued a statement addressed
to Iran’s larger student movement. In the statement, the group declared:

The student movement must be a safe haven for students
regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, or language. Is the
student movement in a position to pretend that diversity does not exist within
its ranks? Should it pretend that we do not have homosexual students in this
country? During the past few years, we have stood beside you. And we will
continue to stand with you.[237]

A little more than a month later, after demonstrations
gripped the country following the disputed results of the June 12 presidential
election, HSUI issued its second statement condemning the government’s
crackdown on protesters and civil society. On December 6, 2009, a day before
the commemoration of Student Day in Iran, it issued a third statement in
support of the Green Movement:

Considering that a
considerable number of students are sexual minorities and the fact that many
queer activists are either students or alumni of Iranian universities, on the
eve of this year’s Student Day we should embrace a more thorough meaning
of human rights values that includes the rights of queers.[238]

The next day, Hesam Misaghi,[239]
a member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR)[240],
gave an interview to a gay-oriented US publication in which he acknowledged the
recent creation of a group within CHRR dedicated to protecting the rights of
sexual minorities. During the interview, Misaghi also referred to the existence
of sexual minorities and LGBT student groups within university campuses
throughout Iran. Within days, the Ministry of Intelligence summoned Misaghi and
several of his CHRR colleagues. Misaghi chose to ignore the summons and go into
hiding. He eventually fled Iran and sought refugee status in Turkey.

Later, in a letter addressed to Human Rights Watch during
the summer of 2010, Misaghi explained that a trusted source had informed him
that the Ministry of Intelligence was planning to arrest him and several of his
colleagues. He told Human Rights Watch that he feared that the authorities
would prosecute both him and the other members of the CHRR to the maximum
extent of the law, in part because of his organization’s decision to take
up the issue of sexual minorities.[241]

CHRR, one of the few remaining human rights organizations in
the country, was effectively shut down by the government earlier this year. All
of its members are either currently in prison or in exile.[242]

Government efforts to silence the work of rights defenders,
including those who take up issues of sexual orientation or gender identity,
violate Iran’s obligations to guarantee freedom of expression and
assembly. In addition, both the Special Representative to the Secretary General
on Human Rights Defenders and the UN special rapporteur on torture have noted
(in the former’s words):

[The] greater risks ...
faced by defenders of the rights of certain groups as their work challenges
social structures, traditional practices and interpretation of religious precepts
that may have been used over long periods of time to condone and justify
violation of the human rights of members of such groups. Of special importance
will be ... human rights groups and those who are active on issues of
sexuality, especially sexual orientation ... These groups are often very
vulnerable to prejudice, to marginalization and to public repudiation, not only
by State forces but other social actors.[243]

XII. The Situation of
Iranian LGBT Refugees and Asylum Seekers

There I had to hide the fact that I was a lesbian. Here I
have to prove it.

—Maryam S., Lesbian Iranian in exile, April 2010

Human Rights Watch researchers traveled to Turkey three
times in order to meet with LGBT refugees and asylum seekers: in October 2007,
May 2008, and April 2010. They interviewed more than 125 LGBT Iranians who had
arrived in Turkey seeking asylum between 2005 and 2010 with no more than their
passport, a change of clothes, and a few hundred dollars in their pocket.

Turkey is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention;
however, it limits resettlement of refugees inside the country to those who
originate from Europe. Non-European refugees are considered by the Turkish
government to be “temporary asylum seekers” who shall remain in
Turkey until United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) grants them
refugee status and they are resettled in a third country, or they are denied
refugee status and must be sent back to their country of origin. Despite these
limitations, Turkey receives the largest number of Iranian refugees, including
members of Iran’s sexual minorities, of any other country because it
shares a border with Iran, does not require visas for Iranian passport holders,
and is a transit route to continental Europe.

UNHCR grants LGBT asylum refugee status on the grounds of
belonging to a “particular social group.”[244]
However, UNHCR did not originally identify them in their database by their
lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender identities. It was not until September
2008 that UNHCR started to include sexual orientation or gender identity as a
field in its recollection of data.[245]That same year, UNHRC
issued a guidance note recognizing that individuals being persecuted due to
sexual orientation and gender identity should be considered to be “fleeing
due to membership of a particular social group.”

Iranian LGBT refugees and asylum seekers face many of the
same problems that all refugees face in Turkey.[246]
The refugee registration process is multi-phased process during which
applicants must apply for “temporary asylum” with the Turkish
Ministry of Interior and undergo refugee status determination interviews with
UNHCR. The process from start to finish, when the applicant boards a plane to
go to a resettlement country, can take up to two years if not longer.[247]

During their time in Turkey, all refugees and asylum seekers
are constrained by a range of regulations restricting what they can and cannot
do while they are in Turkey. For example, all refugees and asylum seekers have
restricted freedom of movement and must be assigned to a “satellite
city” away from larger urban areas such as Istanbul, Ankara, or Izmir.[248]They must sign in at
the local “foreigners” police station once or several times a week
so that authorities can ensure that they have not left their assigned city.[249]

Turkish law requires that all refugees and asylum seekers
pay fees for residency, which must be renewed every six months. According to
Turkish law, they have the right to apply for exemption of residency fees in
accordance with Turkey’s Article 88 of the Law on Collection of Fees (No.
492). Most, however, are not aware of this right. Those who have applied told
Human Rights Watch that it is nearly impossible for the exemption to be
granted. Most refugees and asylum seekers do not have the ability to pay the
residency fees.[250]
Without residency permits it is extremely difficult to gain access to health
care, education, social assistance, and employment. In general, refugees and
asylum seekers are responsible for their own expenses, including housing.

Turkish law also requires
everyone, including refugees and asylum seekers, to secure work permits prior
to gaining employment. Administrative burdens, along with the high cost of
residency fees, means that most refugees cannot secure work permits and must
therefore work illegally in order to make a living. Working illegally, on the
other hand, renders many refugees and asylum seekers vulnerable to abuse and
exploitation by their Turkish employers.

In addition to these general hardships, however, Iranian
LGBT refugees and asylum seekers have their own set of unique problems.[251]
During its three visits to Turkey in 2007, 2008 and 2010, Human Rights Watch
interviewed dozens of Iranian LGBT refugees and asylum seekers who described
their main problems in Turkey as discrimination and abuse suffered at the hands
of local townspeople in Turkey, difficulties with Turkish government
authorities including the Turkish police, and problems with UNHCR itself.

One of the biggest problems facing LGBT refugees and asylum
seekers is that they must reside in smaller “satellite cities” in
Turkey’s interior. These smaller towns often have populations that are
more culturally conservative than Turkey’s larger urban centers and may thus
have problems with LGBT guests. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have
documented numerous cases of harassment and gender-based violence directed at
Iranian LGBT refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey.[252]LGBT refugees also
complained of insufficient police protection or neglect when they attempted to
report such abuses. Despite these dangers, however, current UNHCR guidelines do
not consider sexual orientation or gender identity as factors warranting expedited
resettlement.[253]

Another common grievance aired by Iranian LGBT refugees in
Turkey was problems with UNHCR staff, including interviewers and interpreters
tasked with performing registration and refugee status determinations. The
majority of complaints by LGBT refugees included inappropriate, insensitive, or
irrelevant questions asked by UNHCR officers, including some which were sexual in
nature. Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, believed that these
problems existed in part because of a lack of adequate guidelines for
interviewing LGBT asylum seekers.[254]

In response to these problems, UNHCR issued new guidelines
on processing refugee claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity in
November 2008. The guidelines make it clear that “the fact that a[n] LGBT
applicant has never actually been prosecuted for his or her homosexual conduct
does not prevent him or her from having a well-founded fear of being
persecuted.”[255]
The guidelines also recognize that LGBT claims deserve protection whether the
persecution is carried out by authorities or private actors whom the
authorities are unwilling or unable to stop. The UNHCR guidelines also state
that a “person should not automatically be considered heterosexual merely
because he or she is, or has been, married, has children, or dresses in
conformity with prevailing social codes.”

Finally, the guidelines encourage UNHCR to employ staff
well-versed and trained in dealing with LGBT persons, and they call for the
issuance of training manuals regarding proper questions to pose to applicants
during the interview process.

On October 1, 2010, UNHCR issued the following statement
regarding LGBT asylum seekers and refugees:

The existence of laws criminalizing same-sex relations in
many countries (including the death penalty in seven) poses significant
problems for these asylum seekers and refugees. Such laws, whether enforced or
not, impede their ability to access state protection in their home countries.
When they flee, they are often reluctant to register for asylum. When they do
register for asylum, they may be unlikely to testify truthfully at asylum
hearings regarding the nature of their persecution.

The survey found that people from these groups are more
prone to sexual and gender-related violence during detention, both in their
home countries and countries of asylum. It also found that they face a
heightened risk of discrimination in urban settings and refugee camps.

Durable solutions tend to be more limited, with integration
into the country of asylum and return to the home country often not being a
possibility. UNHCR advocates for resettlement of individuals who face a
heightened risk as a result of belonging to this social group, and calls upon
resettlement states to recognize their vulnerability.[256]

Human Rights Watch calls
on states receiving Iranian LGBT refugees, and particularly the government of Turkey,
to, among other things, prohibit and prosecute acts of violence against them,
allow freedom of movement for these individuals (including allowing them to
settle in larger urban areas), and allow them to apply for work permits and
residency exemptions.

Human Rights Watch also calls on UNHCR to, among other
things, develop and apply training materials based on the UNHCR Guidance Note
on Refugee Claims Related to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and to
refer recognized LGBT refugees for resettlement together with their partners.
Last but not least, Human Rights Watch calls on resettlement countries,
including EU member states, Canada, Australia, and the United States, to
prohibit refoulement of LGBT refugees or asylum seekers to Iran based on the
notion that there is no systematic persecution of sexual minorities in that
county, and that these individuals can live comfortably in Iran as long as they
conceal their sexual orientation and identity.[257]

Acknowledgments

This report was written by Faraz Sanei, researcher for the
Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. The report is
based on research conducted by Faraz Sanei, Juliana Cano Nieto,
former researcher for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights
program, and Jessica Stern, former researcher for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program. Eric Goldstein, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa
division, Boris Dittrich, acting director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender rights program, Bill Frelick, director of the refugee
policy program, and Bede Sheppard, senior researcher with the children’s
rights division, edited this report. Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at
Human Rights Watch, and Danielle Haas, consultant to the Program Office,
reviewed this report. Adam Coogle, associate in the Middle East and North
Africa division, provided production assistance. Publications Director Grace
Choi, Mail Manager Fitzroy Hepkins, and Creative Manager Anna Lopriore prepared
the report for publication.

Human Rights Watch would like to thank the Iranian Queer
Organization (IRQO), the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, the Organization for Refuge,
Asylum and Migration (ORAM), Kaos GL, Lambda Istanbul, the Association for
Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (ASAM), and the UNHCR office in
Ankara, Turkey for the extensive assistance they provided.

Last but not least, Human Rights Watch would like to thank
the dozens of Iranians who agreed to share their stories and experiences with
us.

Appendix 1: Letter
from Human Rights Watch to the Iranian Government requesting information for
this report

November 4, 2010

His Excellency Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Head of the Judiciary, Islamic Republic of Iran

His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani, Head of the Human Rights Council of the Judiciary, Islamic Republic of Iran

His Excellency Alireza Avai, Head of the Tehran Judiciary, Islamic Republic of Iran

We write this letter to request permission for a Human
Rights Watch delegation to visit Iran, in order to further the research we are
conducting into the human rights situation of Iranians who self-identify as
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (collectively referred to as “sexual
minorities”), or individuals who engage in consensual same-sex conduct.

For the past five years, Human Rights Watch has been
gathering information, including accounts by Iranians both inside and outside
the country who allege a pattern of state-sponsored discrimination against Iran’s
sexual minorities. In order to complement that research we wish to conduct
on-the-ground interviews in Iran, including with government officials in order
to discuss the subject and ensure that government views are fully incorporated
into our report.Our
findings will officially be released in the form of a report in the coming
months.

We hope you will grant Human Rights Watch permission to
visit Iran to conduct this research. Even if you do not authorize our visit, however,
we wish to solicit from you information about laws affecting the rights of
sexual minorities, statistics about the number of persons prosecuted for
engaging in same-sex relations, any information about the mechanisms or
programs the Iranian government has in place to prevent and punish
ill-treatment by the police and basij forces of members of Iran’s
sexual minorities, and any other observations you wish to make so that these
may be reflected in our report. We will reflect in the report all pertinent
information we receive from you by November 25, 2010.

As you are aware, Iranian law defines the crime of sodomy to
include both consensual and coerced sexual relations, whether penetrative or
not, between men. The punishment for intercourse between two men is death and
for sexual relations between two women (mosaheqeh) is 100 lashes for the
first three offenses and the death penalty for the fourth. Similarly, tafkhiz,
or the rubbing together of thighs or buttocks (or other forms of
non-penetrative “foreplay” between men) is punishable by 100 lashes
for each partner. Recidivism is punishable by death on the fourth conviction.
In addition, “lustful” kissing between two men (and two women) is
punishable by up to 60 lashes, and “[i]f two men who are not related by
blood are found naked under the same cover without any necessity,” each
one will receive up to 99 lashes.

HRW opposes the death penalty on principle. The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states, in Article
6, “In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of
death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the
law in force at the time of the commission of the crime.” We cannot see
how making a capital offense of consensual same-sex relations can be reconciled
with this obligation.

We believe that provisions in the Iranian Penal Code that
criminalize consensual same-sex relations are inconsistent with Iran’s
international obligations under the ICCPR. The Human Rights Committee, which
interprets the ICCPR, has called on all state parties to repeal laws
criminalizing homosexual conduct.

In addition, Iran allows the execution of juvenile
offenders, including those alleged to have committed sodomy, even though the
ICCPR and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) prohibit Iran from
sentencing individuals to death for any offense committed while they were under
the age of 18. Iran is a signatory to both of these international conventions.

Our preliminary findings suggest that there is a relationship
between Iran’s discriminatory laws against sexual minorities and alleged
abuse perpetrated against them by state actors (such as security forces) and by
private citizens (including family members). Iran’s sexual minorities are
often the targets of harassment, abuse, blackmail, extortion, and torture
because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet because the law
criminalizes same-sex conduct, Iran’s sexual minorities cannot avail
themselves of the general protections afforded under the law to all Iranians
because they fear further discrimination and possible prosecution. In certain
instances, particularly in those where the abuse is alleged to have been
perpetrated by state actors (including members of the police force or basij),
Iran’s sexual minorities may be targeted precisely because the
perpetrators know that their victims have nowhere to turn.

Moreover, we have collected eyewitness accounts and other
information suggesting that Iran’s security forces (including the police
and basij) rely upon these discriminatory laws to target, arrest, and
detain individuals whom they suspect of being “gay” or of belonging
to Iran’s sexual minorities. This targeting takes place in both public
and private spaces, including parks, cafes, and people’s homes. We have
also documented instances where security forces have targeted individuals over
the internet or at private parties whom they suspect of engaging in (or
intending to engage in) consensual same-sex conduct.

In addition, a number of the witnesses we contacted alleged
instances of ill-treatment, verbal and psychological abuse, sexual harassment,
sexual assault, rape, and torture of gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgender
Iranians (or individuals suspected of belonging to these groups). In most cases,
the abusive conduct was alleged to have been committed by local police or basij
forces, either in public spaces or in detention facilities. If true, these
allegations amount to a series of violations of international law, and in some
cases, Iran’s obligations under its own domestic laws. We would welcome
any information about the mechanisms or programs the Iranian government has in
place to prevent and punish ill-treatment by the police and basij forces of
members of Iran’s sexual minorities.

Our research also suggests that at least in some cases,
individuals who are arrested and charged with “homosexual crimes”
receive summary trials in which judges ignore the strict evidentiary guidelines
that the penal code stipulates for such cases. Instead, they rely upon evidence
that should be inadmissible as evidence of guilt, including confessions
extracted through the use of physical torture and extreme psychological
pressure. In some cases, courts have convicted defendants of sodomy charges
solely on the basis of “the knowledge of the judge,” even in the
absence of inculpatory evidence or in the presence of exculpatory evidence.
Article 120 of the Iranian Penal Code allows a Shari’a judge to reach a
verdict on sodomy based on his “knowledge” as “derived
through customary methods,” a method that in practice enables judges to
rely on tenuous circumstantial evidence to determine whether a crime has
occurred. This provision also makes it easy in practice for a judge’s
individual prejudices toward a defendant’s appearance or demeanor to sway
his or her rulings.

In closing, we reiterate
our request that you allow Human Rights Watch to visit Iran in order to conduct
further research and assess the situation of Iran’s sexual minorities,
and to meet with Iranian officials regarding these and other issues of concern.
We would be eager to discuss the modalities of such a visit at your earliest
convenience.In any event, our
forthcoming report will reflect any pertinent information you provide to us by
November 25, 2010.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Sarah Leah Whitson

Executive Director, Middle East & North Africa Division

Appendix 2: Follow-up
Letter from Human Rights Watch to the Iranian Government requesting information
for this report

December 2, 2010

His Excellency Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Head of the Judiciary, Islamic Republic of Iran

His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani, Head of the Human Rights Council of the Judiciary, Islamic Republic of Iran

His Excellency Alireza Avai, Head of the Tehran Judiciary, Islamic Republic of Iran

The purpose of this
letter is to request permission for Human Rights Watch to come to Iran in order
to present to the press, the public, and the government, its forthcoming report
on the human rights situation of Iranians who self-identify as gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender, or individuals who engage in consensual same-sex
conduct (collectively “sexual minorities”).

This letter follows our November 4, 2010 correspondence to
you.

In that earlier letter, we informed you of our research into
this topic and shared some of our preliminary findings with you. We asked that
you allow Human Rights Watch to send a delegation to Iran in order to further
our research and meet with Iranian officials, and provided you with an
opportunity to submit any pertinent information you feel should be included in
our research by November 25, 2010. Additionally, we informed you that we plan
on officially releasing our findings in the form of a report in the coming
months.

To date, we are unaware of any responses from your
government to Human Rights Watch’s aforementioned requests. If you have
provided us with a response and we have for some reason not received it, please
let us know as soon as possible.

We will be happy to provide you with an advance copy of the
report as soon as its Farsi version is finalized.

It is the general policy of Human Rights Watch’s
Middle East and North Africa division to release reports inside the country of
concern in an effort to provide the government, the local press, and members of
the public the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue and debate
regarding the subject of the report, in this case, the human rights situation
of Iran’s sexual minorities. Accordingly, we wish to present our
forthcoming report on Iran at a press conference in Tehran.

We hope that you will agree to provide visas to three Human
Rights Watch staff members so that they can come to Iran and hold such a press
conference and meet with government officials to discuss the human rights
situation of Iran’s sexual minorities and the recommendations we address
to Iranian government authorities.

If we do not hear from you in the coming days, we will
release this report on December 15, 2010, outside of Iran.

I would be happy to discuss with you any aspect of the
report – its findings, recommendations, and methodology, as well as the
manner that we make it public.

We hope that you will allow us this opportunity, and look
forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Sarah Leah Whitson

Executive Director, Middle East & North Africa Division

[1]Transgender Iranians have been
recognized in Iran since 1987 when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or
religious edict, granting them permission to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

[4]The
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, opened for signature May 23, 1969,
115 U.N.T.S. 331, establishes that obligations under international agreements
are not terminated by a change in government.

[9]
UN General Assembly, Resolution 62/168, Situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran, UN Doc. A/RES/62/168, March 20, 2008. This resolution
called upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran “to abolish,
as called for by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its report of
January 2005, executions of persons who at the time of their offence were under
the age of 18”; and “Situation of human rights in the Islamic
Republic of Iran” where the AG “deplores the execution of persons
who were under the age of 18 at the time their offence was committed, contrary
to the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 37 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, and articles 4 and 6 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in spite of the
announcement of a moratorium on juvenile executions” called upon Iran “to
abolish … executions of persons who at the time of their offence were
under the age of 18, and to uphold the moratoriums on juvenile executions and
executions by stoning and to introduce these moratoriums as law in order to
completely abolish this punishment; UN-Doc. A/RES/61/176, 1 March 2007. Annex
1.

[13]Iran
Constitution, article 38. Article 578 of the penal code and articles one, six,
and nine of the Citizens Rights Law of 2004 also prohibit the use of torture,
especially in order to secure confessions.

[21]“Report
of the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders,”
UN Doc. E/CN.4/2001/94 (2001), para. 89g; cited in “Report of the Special
Rapporteur on the Question of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading
Treatment or Punishment,” UN General Assembly, A/56/156, July 3, 2001.

[22]
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Adopted November 20, 1989, 1577
U.N.T.S.3 (entered into force September 2, 1990), arts. 12, 13 and 24(2)(e).

[23]UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 12, The Right of the
Child to be Heard, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/12 (2009), paras. 98 and 100.

[24]UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 4, Adolescent health
in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc.
CRC/GC/2003/4 (2003), paras. 39(b) and 39(d).

[26]
General Comment 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health,
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 22nd Session,
E/C.12/2000/4, 11/08/2000, paras. 18-19.

[27]
The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law
in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, art. 18. In 2006, a group
of international human rights experts met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and drafted
a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender
identity. They presented the Yogyakarta Principles as “a universal guide
to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which
all States must comply.” See The Yogyakarta Principles,
http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ (accessed November 13, 2010).

[30]Islamic
Penal Code, Iran, Book 2, chapters. 1-3; see also Islamic Penal Code, Iran,
art. 637 (prohibiting illegitimate relations not amounting to sexual conduct
between men and women). Criminal heterosexual relations (i.e. fornication and
adultery) are addressed in chapter 1 of the penal code, while same-sex conduct
described in the penal code as “sodomy” and
“lesbianism” is described in chapters 2 and 3. The punishment for
“illegitimate relations” between unmarried men and women (including
fornication) is flogging, although the death penalty will be applied to repeat
offenders, Islamic Penal Code, Iran, arts. 88, 90. Adulterers, on the other
hand, are subject to execution by stoning, Islamic Penal Code, Iran, arts.99-107.

[31]Islamic Penal Code,
Iran, arts. 12-13. Hudud
crimes are essentially crimes deemed to have been committed against God’s
will, or “divine law.” The punishment for these crimes, which
include sodomy, adultery, theft, are fixed under Shari’a law and
may not be altered by anyone, including a judge. The punishment for other
crimes, such as qesas (retaliatory crimes) or ta’zir (other
crimes for which the punishment is discretionary) may be administered at the
discretion of the victim or the presiding judge.

[34]Islamic
Penal Code, Iran, art. 111. Article 111 absolves a male victim of rape of any
criminal liability because he is deemed to have not participated in the act
willingly. In Iran, forcible sodomy or rape of a male by another male is often
referred to as lavat beh onf. It should be noted, however, that under
Iranian law lavat includes both forcible and consensual sodomy.
Moreover, under Iranian law majority (and maturity) is attained at the age of
puberty (buluq) as stipulated by Shari’a and as specified
in Iran’s 1991 Civil Code as 15 lunar years (14 years and 5 months) for
boys and 9 lunar years (8 years and 8 months) for girls. Islamic Penal Code,
Iran, art. 49; Iranian Civil Code of November 1991, art. 1210. For a discussion
of prevailing debates over puberty and criminal responsibility in Iran, see
also Emad Baghi, “The Issue of Executions of Under-18s in Iran”,
July 2007, available at http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000924.php? (accessed
July 2010). See also section III for a discussion on Iran’s use of the
sodomy law and the death penalty against juveniles.

[44]
See section X for a discussion of the rights of transgender and transsexual
persons in Iran.

[45]Islamic Penal Code, Iran, arts. 114; 117. If the accused
confesses to lavat fewer than four times they will be subject to ta’zir,
or lesser punishment (which includes corporal punishment), Islamic Penal Code,
Iran, art. 115.

[55]
Even this bill, however, provided inadequate protections against torture. It
set no limits, for instance, on the length of time a person could be detained incommunicado,
and it would have exempted altogether from its protections certain categories
of arrestees, including people charged with moharebeh (‘enmity
against God’), a general category for dissidents or moral offenders that could
also be interpreted to include sexual minorities.

[56]Islamic
Penal Code, Iran, art. 638. This article also addresses women who appear in
public without the hijab.

[65]Examination
and Medical Exemptions Regulations, Iran, art. 33, No. 8. As of early 2010,
transgender applicants seeking military exemption are no longer classified as
having a psychological or behavioral disorder.

[66]
In February 2010, the Iranian military announced that it will no longer
classify transgender Iranians as individuals with behavioral disorders.
According to the Director of Socially Vulnerable groups at the State Agency for
National Well-Being, the new regulations will allow transgender Iranians to be
classified either as “people with hormonal imbalance” or
“diabetics.” “Transgenders No Longer Classified as having
Behavioral Disorders on their Military Exemption Cards,” BBC Persian,
January 6, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2010/01/100106_l07_transsexual_iran_sarbazi_armyexemption.shtml
(accessed August 23, 2010).

[67]
During the course of its investigation, Human Rights Watch spoke to numerous
individuals, including human rights activists, who maintained that only
applicants who identify themselves as “passive partners,” or maf’ul,
(as opposed to fa’el , or the “active” partner) will
be considered for military exemption. See, e.g., Human Rights Watch interview
with Mohammad-Reza, April 4, 2010. Mohammad-Reza told Human Rights Watch that
his understanding in connection with this limitation is that if one is active
they can reform themselves and engage in heterosexual intercourse.

[68]
Smith and Grady vs. United Kingdom (Application nos. 33985/96 and 33986/96),
Judgment of September 27, 1999, para. 90-105, both are available at www.echr.coe.int.

[72]
Several gay men interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that homosexual conduct
is not uncommon in the military, and several provided testimony regarding their
own experiences while in the military. Some of these experiences included
consensual sex, while others amounted to sexual abuse.

[76]
Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad, November 30, 2006. In Iran people
often use the term ‘transsexual’ instead of
‘transgender.’ The doctor presumably tried to convince his patient
that he was transsexual because transgender Iranians have certain protections
under the law. See section X for a discussion on transgender and transsexual
rights.

[77]See Daniel Ottosson, “State Sponsored Homophobia,”
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association
(ILGA), May 2010, http://old.ilga.org/Statehomophobia/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2010.pdf (accessed November 13,
2009). According to the ILGA report, sodomy is punishable by death in parts of
Somalia and Nigeria. Also, there is some dispute
among lawyers and international human rights groups regarding whether sodomy is
punishable by death in the United Arab Emirates.

[78]
Iran currently has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world. According to some rights groups, Iran has executed hundreds
of LGBT persons since 1979.

[79]
Iranian law criminalizes same-sex conduct and not homosexuality per se.
Therefore MSM, WSW, or individuals who self-identify as heterosexuals may also
be prosecuted under the law.

[80]
Another complication is that under Iran’s penal code, both consensual and
non-consensual heterosexual and same-sex relations outside the traditional
marital relationship warrant the death penalty. See generally Islamic Penal
Code, Iran, arts. 63-107 (addressing the crimes of fornication or other
“illegitimate relations,” such as incest and adultery); see also
Islamic Penal Code, Iran, arts. 82(d) (addressing the act of heterosexual
rape), 110-11 (addressing, albeit implicitly, the rape of one male by another
male).

[83]
Letter from Human Rights Watch to His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi, Iran’s
Head of the Judiciary, “Letter to Iran's Head of
Judiciary,” July 27, 2005,
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2005/07/26/human-rights-watch-letter-irans-head-judiciary.

[88]Iran leads the world in
executing juvenile offenders – at least seven in 2008, and at least four
in 2009. The execution of another juvenile offender, Safar Angooti, who was
charged with murder, was scheduled for October 21, 2009, but postponed at the
last minute for a month. In February 2009, the United Nations General Assembly
called on Iran to cease the execution of persons who were under age 18 at the
time of their offense. Similar requests were made during Iran’s Universal
Period Review before the Human Rights Council in February 2010.

[91]
Mohammad Mostafaei, “The Acquittal of Three of the Four Sentenced to Die
for the Murder of a Young Man from Tabriz and the Issuing of a Death Sentence
for One of Them,” Modafe, http://www.modafe.com/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=415,
July 4, 2010, accessed (August 6, 2010).

[96]Asked
about Iran leading the world in the execution of juvenile offenders in a New
York Times interview, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran
youngsters are not executed. Where have they been executed? Our law actually
sets 18 as the criminally liable age for capital punishment. So I don’t
really know where you brought the number 30 from.” See “An Interview
With President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” New York Times, September 26, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/world/middleeast/26iran-transcript.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&ref=middleeast
(November 26, 2010).

[98]
In 2003, the Iranian Majlis introduced a bill to increase the minimum
age for executions to 18, in accordance with Iran’s international legal
obligations. The Guardian Council, however, refused to approve the measure.

[99]
UN General Assembly, Resolution 62/168, Situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran, UN Doc. A/RES/62/168, March 20, 2008. This resolution
called upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran “[to] abolish,
as called for by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its report of
January 2005, executions of persons who at the time of their offence were under
the age of 18”; and “Situation of human rights in the Islamic
Republic of Iran” where the AG “deplores the execution of persons
who were under the age of 18 at the time their offence was committed, contrary
to the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 37 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, and articles 4 and 6 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in spite of the
announcement of a moratorium on juvenile executions” called upon Iran “to
abolish … executions of persons who at the time of their offence were
under the age of 18, and to uphold the moratoriums on juvenile executions and
executions by stoning and to introduce these moratoriums as law in order to
completely abolish this punishment; UN-Doc. A/RES/61/176, 1 March 2007. Annex
1.

[102]
Violence and abuse suffered at the hands of family members and relatives do
not, of course, only affect young LGBT person or children who exhibit
non-conforming sexual or gender identity. As in many other countries, children
in Iran are punished, sometimes quite harshly, for any conduct deemed to
violate acceptable social or cultural norms. This is particularly true of any
sexual conduct that takes place outside the bonds of traditional marriage,
whether heterosexual or homosexual in nature.

[108]
The basiji(Niruy-e Moqavemat-e Basij, or Resistance Mobilization Force)
is a volunteer paramilitary force of men and women. It is “a large people’s
militia” created by Ayatollah Khomeini in November 1979 to advance the
aims of the Islamic Revolution. The Basijis are under the control of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and have branches throughout Iran,
including in many social institutions such as schools, universities, mosques,
and government offices. They engage in a wide range of activities, but one of
their core duties is to help maintain law and order, repress dissent, and
enforce their conservative interpretation of Islamic codes of dress and
behavior; Sepah is short for Sepah-e Pasdaran, another name for
the IRGC.

[117]
The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law
in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, art. 18. In 2006, group
of international human rights experts met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and drafted
a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender
identity. They presented the Yogyakarta Principles as “a universal guide
to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which
all States must comply.” The Yogyakarta Principles,
http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ (accessed November 13, 2010).

[122]Herasat offices at universities usually coordinate their activities with
security and intelligent forces, including basiji students, and are
responsible for spying and reporting on student activities on campuses.

[126]
These crackdowns seem to come in waves. Earlier in 2010, authorities rolled out
the latest nation-wide campaign to combat social vice and crackdown on
Iranians, particularly women, deemed to be flouting the Islamic dress code or
engaging in other acts of “public indecency.” See “Iran:
Morality Police Launch Crackdown on Clothing and Hairdos Deemed Un-Islamic,”
Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2010, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/05/iran-fashion-crackdown.html
(accessed December 9, 2010).

[129]Tehran areas known to be
“hangouts”—or patoq—for gay men and transgenders
include Park-e Daneshju, Park-e Mellat, the area underneath Karim Khan bridge,
and various restaurants or commercial spots. Authorities regularly shut down
these restaurants or restrict access to families, but newer
“hangouts” inevitably replace them.

[130]
“Iran’s ‘Diagnosed Transsexuals’,” BBC,
February 25, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7259057.stm
(accessed December 11, 2010). Pre-operative transwomen are still legally and
biologically recognized as men, and cannot, therefore, engage in lawful sexual
relations with other men. See section X for more discussion of Iranian laws and
policies applicable to transgender Iranians.

[131]
See section X for more discussion of discrimination and violence against
Iran’s transgender and transsexual population.

[142]
This information was provided to Human Rights Watch by the Iranian Queer
Organization (IRQO), a Canadian rights group dedicated to documenting abuses by
the Iranian government against Iranian LGBT as well as assisting LGBT refugees
and asylum seekers.

[152]
Human Rights Watch interview with Farzam, April 9, 2010. Punishment for crimes
such as “participating in a corrupt gathering” is usually
administered quickly and efficiently pursuant to a short trial before an
administrative judge.

[154]
Human Rights Watch interview with Arsham Parsi, March 16, 2006. Manjam
is a popular dating site that caters to both straight and gay men. Several
individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch during the course of its
investigations expressed concern about the safety of this site.

[155]Kuni is a derogatory term for gays. Bacheh means
‘kid’ or ‘young’ in Farsi.

[164]Hezbollahi is a generic term that refers to security agents, whether
members of Iran’s uniformed police, plainclothes agents, or basij
militia members, who are charged with pursuing “moral”
indiscretions in public.

[187]Iran
Constitution, article 38. Article 578 of the penal code and articles one, six,
and nine of the Citizens Rights Law of 2004 also prohibit the use of torture,
especially in order to secure confessions.

[192]
A Siqeh is a “temporary marriage” which allows a non-married
man and woman to engage in sexual relations. The practice is recognized by
clerics who follow the the Twelver Shi’a school of Islam, which is the
official religion in Iran.

[202]
See, e.g., section VI discussing treatment of detainees arrested on May 10,
2007, for attending a “gay” party in Esfahan.

[203]
See section VII for a general discussion of the use of ill-treatment and
torture of sexual minorities in detention; see also “Netherlands, Sweden:
“Bar Deportations to Tortuer in Iran,” Human Rights Watch news
release, October 8, 2006, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/10/08/netherlands-sweden-bar-deportations-torture-iran.

[204]
For further discussion of convictions based on the “knowledge of the judge,”
see sections II and III.

[205]
Article 82 of the penal code only defines rape as coerced intercourse outside
the traditional bonds of marriage.

[216]
Khomeini’s original fatwa has since been reconfirmed by the
current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is
also supported by many other Iranian clerics. Hojatoleslam Kariminia, a
mid-level cleric who is in favor of transsexual rights, has stated that he
wishes “to suggest that the right of transsexuals to change their gender
is a human right” and that he is attempting to “introduce
transsexuals to the people through [his] work and in fact remove the stigma or
the insults that sometimes attach to these people.”

[235]In
addition, there are several organizations, such as the Iranian Queer Railroad
(IRQR) and the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO), operating outside Iran and dedicated
to advocating on behalf of the rights of sexual minorities inside the country.

[239]
Hesam Misaghi does not identify as a member of Iran’s LGBT or sexual
minority community.

[240]
The Committee of Human Rights Reporters is an Iran-based human rights
organization that was founded in 2006. Most of their members are currently
either in exile or prison. CHRR does not exclusively focus on issues related to
the rights of sexual minorities in Iran. See “Iran: New Coordinated
Attack on Human Rights Groups,” Human Rights Watch news release, March
24, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/24/iran-new-coordinated-attack-human-rights-groups.

[243]“Report
of the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Human Rights
Defenders,” UN Doc. E/CN.4/2001/94 (2001), para. 89g; cited in “Report
of the Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman
and Degrading Treatment or Punishment,” UN General Assembly, A/56/156,
July 3, 2001.

[244]
According to UNHCR, a “particular social group is a group of persons who
share a common characteristic other than their risk of being persecuted, or who
are perceived as a group by society. The characteristic will often be one which
is innate, unchangeable, or which is otherwise fundamental to identity,
conscience, or the exercise of one’s human rights.” UN High
Commissioner for Refugees, “Guidelines on International Protection No. 2:
‘Membership of a Particular Social Group’ Within the Context of
Article 1A (2) of the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol Relating to the
Status of Refugees,” May 7, 2002, HCR/GIP/02/02, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3d36f23f4.html
(accessed December 2, 2010).

[245]
Email communication from Eduardo Yrezabal, Senior Protection Officer, UNHCR, to
Human Rights Watch, September 29, 2008. Yrezabal told Human Rights Watch that
“UNHCR-Turkey introduced only recently (a month ago) a field in its
database that includes sexual orientation. Before this field was included in
the database, LGBT claims were recorded within the wider category of
‘membership of a particular social group.’”

[247]Human
Rights Watch researchers spoke to LGBT refugees who arrived in Turkey as early
as 2006 and had not been resettled two years later. Researchers also
interviewed LGBT refugees that were resettled in less than a year. The speed of
the resettlement process is not clear even among the same group of asylum
seekers and refugees.

[248]
Satellite cities are the provinces the Ministry of Interior in Turkey
designated for asylum seekers to reside in. As this writing, there were more
than 30 cities, mostly in the interior region of the country. See United States
Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, “World Refugee Survey 2008 -
Turkey,” June 19, 2008 in UNHCR Refworld, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/485f50d776.html
(accessed October 15, 2008).

[249]
Refugees and asylums seekers may apply for permission to temporarily leave
their satellite city, but the ultimate decision rests with the local police
station.

[250]
Refugees and asylum seekers who have not paid their residency fees may be
required to do so before being allowed to leave Turkey and resettle in a third
country.

[251]
For an excellent analysis of the situation of LGBT refugees and asylum-seekers
in Turkey, see Helsinki Citizens Assembly (HCA) & Organization for Refugee,
Asylum and Migration (ORAM), “Unsafe Haven: The Security Challenges
Facing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Asylum Seekers and Refugees in
Turkey,” July 8, 2009, http://www.hyd.org.tr/staticfiles/files/unsafe_haven_report.pdf.
Several of the recommendations in this report regarding treatment of LGBT
refugees and asylum-seekers were taken from “Unsafe Haven.”

[252]
UNHCR defines gender-based violence in the following way: “…
gender-based violence is violence that is directed against a person on the
basis of gender or sex. It includes acts that inflict physical, mental or
sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations
of liberty…. While women, men, boys and girls can be victims of
gender-based violence, women and girls are the main victims.” According
to the UNHCR “This kind of violence perpetuates the stereotyping of
gender roles that denies human dignity of the individual and stymies human
development.” See UNHCR, “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against
Refugees, Returnees, and Internally Displaced Persons—Guidelines for
Prevention and Response,” May 2003, www.rhrc.org/pdf/gl_sgbv03_00.pdf (accessed
November 15, 2010).

[253]
Resettlement under UNHCR auspices is geared primarily to the special needs of
refugees under the office’s mandate whose life, liberty, safety, health,
or fundamental human rights are at risk in the country where they seek refuge.
It is also considered a durable solution for refugees who have compelling
reasons to be removed from their country of asylum. Furthermore, it is appropriate
for refugees without local integration prospects, for whom no other solution is
available.

[254]
These guidelines are intended to provide legal interpretative assistance to UNHCR
staff and others who carry out refugee status determination. The Guidelines
recognize that claims presented on the grounds of sexual orientation “contain
a gender element.” It also encompasses “homosexuals, transsexuals,
or transvestites” under a particular social group. The Guidelines,
however, failed to include lesbians within the possible groups that can be
persecuted on the basis of their sexual orientation. Furthermore, the
procedural issues related to interviewing asylum seekers fell short of
including LGBT specific concerns. See UNHCR, Guidelines on International
Protection: Gender-Related Persecution within the context of Article 1A(2) of
the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of
Refugees, HCR/GIP/02/01, May 7, 2002, paras. 16, 36, http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/3d58ddef4.pdf
(accessed October 15, 2008).